Taylor Selected by City Business to Receive Honor
NEW ORLEANS, LA – Started in 1999, Women of the Year recognizes 50 women from the area whose successes in business and contributions to the community have made them movers and shakers in the metro New Orleans region. Honorees are innovative leaders who are making waves with their energy, ideas, achievements and commitment to excellence in the area. Honorees were selected based on business and community involvement and achievement that have set the pace for the overall community. Susan Taylor, the Montine McDaniel Freeman Director of the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA), has been selected as the 2017 City Business Woman of the Year.
Since her tenure began in 2010, Susan Taylor has put in place ambitious exhibition, acquisitions, and program initiatives and placed a renewed emphasis on education strategies for families and children. As a result, Taylor has positioned NOMA as a center for cultural activity in New Orleans—and at the center of a national conversation about the responsibility of cultural organizations to create and build community.
Taylor’s vision to present exhibitions exploring historical and contemporary perspectives has energized visitation from locals and visitors alike. In 2016, NOMA topped the 2015 post-Katrina record with almost 260,000 visitors from 74 countries by the end of 2016, under Taylor’s leadership. As of Q3 of 2017, NOMA is tracking 17 percent ahead of last year.
“Susan Taylor’s commitment to creating a welcoming space for all has allowed NOMA to evolve into a place where our visitors are able to explore ideas relevant to their lives,” said Mike Siegel, President of NOMA’s Board of Trustees. “This commitment has resonated with our constituencies, evidenced by NOMA’s increased visitation, and is also reflected in transformative additions to the permanent collection, many of which are works by artists whose voices have traditionally been under-represented.”
Taylor is a past president of the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) and currently serves on the AAMD board. She has been a member of the AAMD Task Force for Archaeological Materials and Ancient Art since its inception 14 years ago, participating in the development of the organization’s best practices and policies for the field. Additionally, she serves as immediate past chair for the Museum Advisory Board of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, at Vassar College. She is currently on the board of The Corning Museum of Glass, and the International Journal Property. In New Orleans she serves on the Board of The Metairie Park Country Day School and The New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau.
About NOMA and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden
The New Orleans Museum of Art, founded in 1910 by Isaac Delgado, houses nearly 40,000 art objects encompassing 5,000 years of world art. Works from the permanent collection, along with continuously changing special exhibitions, are on view in the museum’s 46 galleries Fridays from 10 AM to 9 PM; Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 10 AM to 6 PM; Saturdays from 10 AM to 5 PM and Sundays from 11 AM to 5 PM. NOMA offers docent-guided tours at 1 PM every Tuesday – Sunday. The adjoining Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden features work by over 60 artists, including several of the 20th century’s master sculptors. The Sculpture Garden is open seven days a week: 9 AM to 6 PM. The New Orleans Museum of Art and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden are fully accessible to handicapped visitors and wheelchairs are available from the front desk. For more information about NOMA, call (504) 658-4100 or visit www.noma.org. Wednesdays are free admission days for Louisiana residents, courtesy of The Helis Foundation. Teenagers (ages 13-19) receive free admission every day through the end of the year, courtesy of The Helis Foundation.
Contact Margaux Krane, Communications and Marketing Manager, for additional information: mkrane@noma.org, 504.658.4016.