Director of the Yale Center for British Art

January 14, 2025

Dear Members of the Yale Community,

I am pleased to share the news that Martina Droth will be the next Paul Mellon Director of the Yale Center for British Art (YCBA), effective January 15, 2025.

Martina, deputy director and chief curator of the YCBA, has been an integral part of the museum—and an active member of the Yale community—for the past sixteen years. In that time, she has built an impressive record of achievement through roles of increasing responsibility, from leading the research division and serving as curator of sculpture to her current post. Prior to the YCBA, she taught at universities and coordinated research and curated exhibitions for major art institutes in the UK. A former chair of the Association of Research Institutes in Art History, Martina has a deep commitment to the field, characterized by collaborative leadership and excellence in curatorial practice, research, and education.

The YCBA will benefit from being led by an art historian and curator who has been instrumental in its success. Martina has been a driving force behind YCBA’s long-range strategy for research, collections, and exhibitions. She is now playing a vital role in reimagining the YCBA’s collection installation and conceiving a new curatorial program in readiness for the museum’s reopening in spring 2025.

Under Martina’s direction, the YCBA will continue to advance its mission of promoting the understanding and appreciation of British art through its exceptional collections, groundbreaking exhibitions, field-defining research, and innovative public programs. In partnership with staff, faculty, and students, she will further enhance educational initiatives, expand community engagement, and foster an intellectual environment that welcomes a breadth of perspectives to be part of the discourse in art and art history. She also will build on the YCBA’s partnerships with Yale’s academic departments to augment the museum’s national and international collaborations and outreach.

Martina has curated numerous high-profile exhibitions, including “Bill Brandt | Henry Moore,” “Sculpture Victorious: Art in an Age of Invention, 1837–1901,” and the forthcoming exhibitions marking YCBA’s reopening year, “Tracey Emin: I Loved You Until the Morning” and “Hew Locke: Passages.” She has secured resources that support the museum’s scholarly initiatives, such as the multi-year Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grants with which she developed the research strategy at the YCBA. Her efforts advancing the YCBA’s mission have often involved collaborative efforts with renowned external institutions such as Tate Britain, the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge University, and the Getty Museum.

Martina’s work at Yale extends well beyond the YCBA. She has served on committees, including the Committee for Art in Public Spaces; co-taught courses with History of Art faculty at Yale; and brought graduate students into curatorial research. She oversaw the YCBA’s first joint exhibition with the Yale School of Architecture and facilitated projects integrating visiting artists with students at the Yale School of Art. She has mentored numerous curators, students, and postdoctoral fellows who have gone on to careers in the academy and museum fields. Her academic work includes many service roles, including co-editing the British Art Studies journal with the Paul Mellon Centre.

Martina’s success over the years is due in large part to her dedication to fostering a culture of collaboration and inclusion. A proponent of building partnerships with local communities, Martina has developed programs to connect broad audiences with Yale’s collections. She initiated “The View from Here: Accessing Art Through Photography,” a program for New Haven high school students, in collaboration with the Lens Media Lab at the Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage. She has introduced New Haven Promise students into the Curatorial Division of the YCBA and created internship opportunities for undergraduates, such as through the Association of Research Institutes in Art History. 

During the search process, many members of the Yale community sent suggestions for candidates and ideas for the future of the YCBA. The search advisory committee and I benefited from the comments we received, as we looked internationally for the best leader to take the helm of the YCBA. Based on the insights we gathered, Martina is the ideal leader for the YCBA. I thank all those who thoughtfully provided their recommendation, and I am grateful to the members of the search advisory committee, chaired by Professor Ned Cooke, for their care in soliciting comments from the community and for the thoughtful ways they considered all the ideas they collected. I also appreciate deeply Richard Brodhead, ninth president of Duke University and former dean of Yale College, for his exceptional leadership as the interim director of the YCBA.

I hope you will join me in congratulating Martina on her new role and in supporting her as she prepares to lead the YCBA. I look forward to working with her as she steers the museum toward new heights in realizing its mission and makes it an ever more welcoming space that offers inspiring experiences with art and deepens our engagement with students, scholars, New Haven residents, and visitors from around the world.

Sincerely,

Maurie McInnis
President
Professor of the History of Art