Brandywine museum names new director

Thomas Padon, the Vancouver Art Gallery's assistant director and director of its international partnerships, has been named director of the Brandywine River Museum, the museum announced Friday.

Padon, who has been based in New York City, will take up his new post Sept. 1. He succeeds longtime director James Duff, who retired at the end of 2011 as executive director of the Brandywine Conservancy, which operates the museum.

Padon, 54, is only the second director of the museum, which began operations in 1971 in an old grist mill on the banks of Brandywine Creek.

"We reviewed scores of candidates, and are delighted to have found in Tom Padon the ideal mix of museum management experience, leadership style, and enthusiasm for our collection and mission," Virginia A. Logan, who succeeded Duff as executive director of the conservancy, said in a statement.

George A. "Frolic" Weymouth, chairman of the conservancy board, cited Padon's "extensive experience" and "impressive commitment to scholarship" as important factors in his selection.

Padon said the museum presented "a matchless opportunity."

He said he looked forward to "working with the board and talented staff to further cultivate the national and growing international activities of the museum."

For the British Columbia museum, Padon cemented collaborations with the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and Paris' Musée d´Orsay, and initiated such exhibitions as "The Color of My Dreams: The Surrealist Revolution in Art."

Padon has a number of publications to his name, including the catalog raisonné of American artist Nancy Graves; Contemporary Photography and the Garden: Deceits and Fantasies; TruthBeauty: Pictorialism and the Photograph as Art, 1845-1945; and other works.