St. Petersburg's Museum of Fine Arts names Kent Lydecker as new director

ST. PETERSBURG — The Museum of Fine Arts has a new director. Board of trustees president Seymour Gordon announced Monday that Kent Lydecker has been selected to head the institution, which has been a cultural anchor of the city since it opened in 1965.

This is the first directorship for Lydecker, 61, but he has held senior staff positions at major museums. He was with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York from 1990 to 2008, serving as its associate director for education since 1993. He has also worked at the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Art Institute of Chicago. He has most recently been affiliated with Johns Hopkins University, teaching museum studies there since 2009. He retired from the Met when his boss, longtime director Philippe de Montebello, retired in 2008.

He replaces John Schloder, who retired in July after nine years as director. Lydecker plans to start in October.

"We began with a lot of candidates," said Gordon. "Then we narrowed it down to five, and then three. All were outstanding. Kent's credentials were just amazing, and he has some excellent ideas."

Lydecker had never visited St. Petersburg when he applied for the job.

"I met the search committee in early July," he said. "It was my first time here. I was blown away. It's a beautiful city, a beautiful building with a wonderful collection."

He is an art history scholar with a doctorate from Johns Hopkins, and most of Lydecker's career has been in the education and program components of museums. At the Met, he oversaw a large department as well as the planning and construction of a $75 million center for education that opened in 2007.

So he says he has already scratched the bricks-and-mortar-project itch that many museum directors want on their resumes.

"The mission of any arts institution is rooted in stewardship (of the art) and making it accessible. Education and the collection are the centerpieces. The great story here is the record of achievement. I want to build on that mission. And the most recent example is the addition. (The 39,000-square-foot Hazel Hough Wing was completed in 2008.) It opens up all kinds of possibilities."

He and his wife, Toni, a cookbook author, have two daughters, a landscape architect and public relations executive, both working in New York.

The Museum of Fine Arts, at 255 Beach Drive NE on the downtown waterfront, is a comprehensive museum with a collection spanning antiquities to contemporary art. Gordon said one of the priorities will be to build the museum's endowment fund for operating expenses, which is currently valued at $400,000. Gordon says in the coming years, the board wants it built to $5 million.

Lennie Bennett can be reached at lennie@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8293.