UNC Greensboro today announced the appointment of Juliette Bianco as director of the Weatherspoon Art Museum and adjunct faculty in the College of Visual and Performing Arts as of September 1.
Bianco will succeed Nancy Doll, who steps down on July 31 after 22 years of dedicated and successful service. Ann Grimaldi, Weatherspoon’s curator for education, will serve as acting director for August.
Bianco has 25 years of experience as an art museum professional. She comes to UNCG from the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, her undergraduate alma mater, where she has served in various leadership capacities, including deputy director since 2013. The American Alliance of Museums calls the Hood Museum a “national model” for college and university museums. Bianco oversaw the museum’s operations and a recent $50 million museum renovation and expansion, managed exhibition planning and design, and led strategic plan development.
Her scholarly interests focus on transformational leadership in higher education and university museums as centers of innovative teaching and learning and hubs for exploring diversity, creative partnerships, and the benefits of strategic planning. In addition to curating and co-curating numerous exhibitions including those of artists Wenda Gu, Stacey Steers, and Edward Burtynsky, Bianco has published on art and museum practice, including “Off the Shelf: A Conversation with MANUAL” (Gulf Coast, 2015) and “Go with the Flow: Fluxus at Play in a Teaching Museum” (Museums, Etc. 2011). Needless to say, her experience and philosophy align completely with UNCG’s mission and “giant steps” mentality.
Bianco holds a master’s degree in art history from the University of Chicago and is a graduate of the Getty Leadership Institute’s residence program for museum administrators. Bianco completed the Doctor of Education degree at Northeastern University in 2020.
“Provost Dana Dunn and I would like to thank the search committee and search chairs Margaret Benjamin and Peter Alexander, whose efforts and expertise saw us through the search to this very successful conclusion,” said UNCG Chancellor Franklin D. Gilliam, Jr. “We welcome Juliette and thank Nancy Doll, whose outstanding leadership has been transformative, resulting in significant increases in non-student attendance, loan requests from major museums on a global scale, fundraising, and enhanced curricular incorporation across a wide array of disciplines. Juliette is well prepared to further this legacy and continue to grow the Museum’s impact on this campus, this community, and beyond.”
