The Morgan Library and Museum in New York has named Colin Bailey, currently the director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, as its new director. Bailey comes to the institution after two years in California and succeeds William Griswold, who left the Morgan in May 2014 to lead the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Lawrence Ricciardi, the president of the Morgan, told the New York Times that Bailey was brought on in part to attract more visitors to the museum. “The programming is there,” he said. “It’s just a question of getting the word out and people in the door.”
Before moving to San Francisco, Baily worked for more than 13 years at the Frick Collection in New York as its chief curator and served for a time as the museum’s deputy director.He is a specialist on 18th-century French art and a leading expert on the work of Pierre-Auguste Renoir. He earned his doctorate in art history at the University of Oxford.