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Snite Museum appoints Joseph Antenucci Becherer as new director
Observer Staff Report | Tuesday, October 9, 2018
The Snite Museum has appointed Joseph Antenucci Becherer as its next director, the University announced in a press release Tuesday.
Becherer previously served as head curator at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He has worked at Meijer Gardens since 1999, according to the release, and in 2009 took on the roles of “chief curator and vice president of sculpture and horticulture, collections and exhibitions.”
Becherer is also a professor at Aquinas College, where he teaches classes about art from the Renaissance, Baroque and Contemporary periods.
In addition to his responsibilities at the Snite Museum, Becherer will “play a major role” in developing the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art at Notre Dame upon its opening in 2021, the release said.
“This directorship is a great honor and opportunity beyond measure as the museum and entire academic community fully embrace the essential role of the arts at the heart of Notre Dame,” Becherer said in the release. “Following in the great tradition that is the Snite Museum of Art, I look forward to working with donors, staff, faculty, students and artists to create in the new Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, one of the nation’s pre-eminent and most innovative university art museums.”
Maura Ryan, vice president and associate provost for faculty affairs, led the University’s efforts to appoint the next Snite Museum Director. Ryan said she looks forward to watching Becherer develop the University’s fine arts projects.
“We are thrilled to have someone of [Becherer’s] artistic vision, talents and operational experience joining our team at Notre Dame,” she said in the release. “We are confident he will continue and enhance the museum’s role in the University’s vibrant arts district that is taking shape on the southern edge of our campus and includes the Charles B. Hayes Family Sculpture Park, which opened in 2017.”
Becherer attended Ohio University, where he pursued undergraduate and master’s degrees in fine arts, the release said. He earned his doctoral degree at Indiana University.
In his most recent works, Becherer “oversaw legacy gifts” from sculptor artists George Segal and Beverly Pepper and curated a “monumental exhibition” featuring artwork by Ai WeiWei, the release said. He has also served as chair of a national committee that commissioned a statue of President Gerald R. Ford in the U.S. Capitol rotunda.
