Saywell named MFA's contemporary art czar

Edward Saywell has been named director of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts’ west wing, which will give him a leading role in the institution’s contemporary art programming. He was until this promotion an assistant curator of prints and drawings at the museum.

Saywell’s promotion, which is scheduled to take effect next month, means he will be a key player at the MFA as it rethinks its approach to contemporary art during its renovation and expansion project that is scheduled to wrap up in fall 2010. The project is expected to repurpose the museum’s west wing as the institution’s home for contemporary art, as the galleria café and Gund Gallery are moved elsewhere. All told, the museum’s website explains, contemporary art will have “250 percent more space for exhibitions and storage in the west wing.”

Saywell had previously worked as a curatorial associate and intern at Harvard’s Fogg Art Museum. There he organized the 1998 exhibit “Behind the Line: The Materials and Techniques of Old Master Drawings” and 2003 exhibit “Christopher Wilmarth: Drawing into Sculpture.” And he co-curated “Degas at Harvard” at Harvard’s Sackler Museum in 2005.


More details to come.