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MOCA BOARD LAUNCHES SEARCH FOR NEXT DIRECTOR, APPOINTS ANN GOLDSTEIN INTERIM

MOCA BOARD LAUNCHES SEARCH FOR NEXT DIRECTOR, APPOINTS ANN GOLDSTEIN INTERIM

ESTEEMED MUSEUM LEADER AND CURATOR, WITH 26 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE AT MOCA, WILL REJOIN AS INTERIM DIRECTOR DURING EXECUTIVE SEARCH

Los Angeles, CA – The Board of Trustees of The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) today announced the launch of a comprehensive international search for the museum’s next director. To ensure a seamless leadership transition throughout the recruitment process, the Board of Trustees has appointed Ann Goldstein to serve as Interim Director, effective August 18, 2025, following Johanna Burton’s departure to lead the ICA Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania.  

The board has established a specialized MOCA Directorial Search Committee. They will work closely with a leading global executive search and leadership advisory firm to support  the committee in its search and recruitment process. 

Goldstein will return to the institution where her career took shape to oversee all curatorial and museum advancement responsibilities including upcoming shows and strategic initiatives. In her new role, Goldstein will work closely with the staff’s senior leadership including Michael Harrison, Deputy Director and Chief Financial Officer, and Clara Kim, Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs, to ensure the continuity of MOCA’s mission  and programs. 

Centering artists in her vision, Goldstein is recognized for such groundbreaking, historical survey exhibitions at MOCA as A Minimal Future? Art as Object 1958-1968, 1965-1975: Reconsidering the Object of Art, and A Forest of Signs: Art in the Crisis of Representation, as well as numerous solo exhibitions and projects over the years at  MOCA, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and the Art Institute of Chicago with Jo Baer, Cosima von Bonin, stanley brouwn, Judy Fiskin, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Roni Horn, Richard Hunt, Mike Kelley, Martin Kippenberger, Barbara Kruger, William Leavitt, Rodney McMillian, Steve McQueen, Cady Noland, Pope.L, Josephine Pryde, Nancy Rubins, Lawrence Weiner, and Christopher Wool, among others. In 2012, the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College presented Goldstein with the Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence, and in April of this year, she was honored by Artists Space in New York at its annual Friends of Artists Space dinner for her “vital contributions to the field.” 

MOCA’s exhibitions currently on view include Diary of Flowers: Artists and their Worlds, MOCA Focus: Takako Yamaguchi, and Fictions of Display.  

MONUMENTS, co-organized and co-presented by MOCA and The Brick, will open at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA and The Brick on October 23, 2025. MONUMENTS brings together a selection of decommissioned Confederate statues with contemporary artworks borrowed and commissioned for the occasion and reflects on the histories and legacies of post-Civil War America as they continue to resonate today. These monuments are juxtaposed with artworks by emerging and established figures in contemporary art. Based on an exhibition concept by The Brick Director Hamza Walker, MONUMENTS is co-curated by Hamza Walker, Kara Walker, artist, and Bennett Simpson, MOCA Senior Curator, with Hannah Burstein, The Brick Curatorial Associate, and Paula Kroll, MOCA Curatorial Assistant.

“MOCA has a remarkable legacy of serving our community and I’m proud it is part of my DNA as a museum professional. I am honored to return to MOCA and greatly look forward to helping the museum through this transition and to working in sync with the museum’s dedicated staff and board to share all that MOCA has to offer with the world,” said Goldstein. “I am energized by the opportunity to support the museum and its programs, including the widely anticipated, extraordinary MONUMENTS exhibition, which is an essential, unprecedented, and epic project born from the visionary collaboration of artists and curators looking unflinchingly at U.S. history,” said Goldstein.

 

“Ann was the driving curatorial force behind my solo exhibition at MOCA in 1999,” said Barbara Kruger, internationally renowned artist and MOCA Trustee.  “For as long as I’ve known her, she has led with a collaborative and artist-centered approach, earning her the deep admiration and respect of many contemporary artists, curators, writers, and supporters of the visual arts.”

 

“No one knows MOCA like Ann. Her deep institutional knowledge and passion for our collection and community coupled with her international directorial expertise makes her the ideal leader to maintain the museum’s momentum,” said Carolyn Clark Powers, Chair of the Board of Trustees. ” While Johanna Burton’s departure marks a moment of transition for MOCA, thanks to her leadership the museum is well positioned for the future.”

WHO

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Goldstein joined MOCA in 1983 when the museum was in its early stages. She rose within the institution over a 26-year period to senior curator. In 2009, she left MOCA to serve as director of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam until 2013, overseeing the reopening of the museum after a renovation and expansion. She joined the Art Institute of Chicago in 2016 as Deputy Director, and Dittmer Chair and Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, advancing the museum’s mission and international reputation through exhibitions, acquisitions, and in an ambassadorial role that drew upon her extensive network of relationships with artists, collectors, donors, colleagues, and external stakeholders.

 

ABOUT THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART (MOCA)

Founded in 1979, MOCA is the defining museum of contemporary art. In a relatively short time, MOCA has achieved astonishing growth: a world-class collection of nearly 8,000 objects, international in scope with deep holdings in Los Angeles art; hallmark education programs that are widely emulated; award-winning publications that present original scholarship; groundbreaking monographic, touring, and thematic exhibitions of international repute that survey the art of our time; and cutting-edge engagement with new modes of media production. MOCA is a not-for-profit institution that relies on a variety of funding sources for its activities.

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