Public Art Fund is very pleased to announce the appointment of Rochelle Steiner as its Director. Steiner comes to the Public Art Fund from the Serpentine Gallery in London, where she has served as Chief Curator since 2001. She will assume her new post on February 6, 2006.

"I am thrilled that Rochelle is the new Director of the Public Art Fund," says Susan K. Freedman, President. "Her superb curatorial vision and scholarship, combined with her extensive experience working with artists, will take our bold and innovative programming to a new level."

During her tenure at the Serpentine Gallery, Rochelle Steiner curated numerous one-person and group exhibitions with internationally acclaimed artists, both established and emerging, including Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: The House of Dreams (2005), Rirkrit Tiravanija: A Retrospective (2005), Nick Relph and Oliver Payne (2005), Gabriel Orozco (2004), Glenn Brown (2004), Monika Sosnowska (2004), State of Play (2004), Hiroshi Sugimoto (2003), John Currin (2003), Cindy Sherman (2003), Kutlug Ataman (2003), and Takashi Murakami: Kaikai Kiki (2002), as well as the forthcoming exhibition with Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset (2006).

A native of Los Angeles, Ms. Steiner graduated Summa cum laude with honors from Syracuse University. She earned her Masters degree and her Ph.D in Visual and Cultural Studies from the University of Rochester. From 1994 to 1996, she participated in the Walker Art Center's NEA Curatorial and Education Internship Program, during which time she co-curated the exhibition Economies: Hans Accola and Rirkrit Tiravanija (1995) and assisted with the organization of the first Kwangju Biennale in Korea in 1995. In 1996, she joined the staff of The Saint Louis Art Museum, serving first as Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art and later as Associate Curator of Contemporary Art. While there she organized the Museum's Currents series of one-artist exhibitions, including shows with Elizabeth Peyton (1997), Dan Peterman (1998), Gary Simmons (1999), Catherine Opie (2000) and Christian Marclay (2001), as well as the group show Wonderland (2000), featuring works by Janet Cardiff, Olafur Eliasson, Teresita Fernendez, Ernesto Neto, Pipilotti Rist, and others. She has written and produced many exhibition catalogues. Her essays and interviews with artists have appeared in Parkett, Modern Painters, and elsewhere, and she was a contributing writer for Art Now (Taschen, 2002).

"The Public Art Fund provides an exciting opportunity to work closely with artists to bring contemporary art outside the museum's walls, and I am looking forward to commissioning works that will be seen within the city of New York and beyond. "

ABOUT THE PUBLIC ART FUND

Public Art Fund is New York's leading presenter of artists' projects, new commissions, installations, and exhibitions in public spaces. By bringing artworks outside the traditional context of museums and galleries, the Public Art Fund provides a unique platform for an unparalleled public encounter with the art of our time. Public Art Fund is a non-profit arts organization supported in part with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency, and the City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs and through generous contributions from corporations, foundations, and individuals.