Museums in a Time of Change: Juliette Bianco, Director of the Weatherspoon Art Museum

Juliette Bianco will present a two-year project at the Weatherspoon Art Museum that is aimed at aligning the museum’s activities more closely with its institutional values. With the events of 2020 and 2021, the museum staff felt that it was time to ask new questions: How might the Weatherspoon improve itself by inviting diverse stakeholders to re-assess both its holdings of American art and the ways in which it shares them? How might this inclusive initiative impact the institution’s practice, and, by extension, its contribution to the community? Juliette will present the museum’s approach to these questions as a case study for audience discussion.

Juliette Bianco is the Anne and Ben Cone Memorial Endowed Director of the Weatherspoon Art Museum at UNC Greensboro, North Carolina. She joined the museum in September 2020 after 25 years at the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College. As director, Juliette sets the strategic, collaborative, and academic leadership and vision for the museum as a core learning resource for UNC Greensboro and the community. Juliette’s scholarly interests focus on transformational leadership in higher education, and on university museums as hubs of innovative teaching and learning; creative partnerships; and the benefits of a diverse and inclusive museum community. She has curated and co-curated numerous exhibitions and has published on art and museum practice. She is a graduate of Dartmouth and holds a master’s degree from the University of Chicago and an EdD from Northeastern University. Juliette is a member of the Board of the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries (AAMG) and serves on the City of Greensboro’s Cultural Affairs Commission.

Museums in the 21st Century Speaker Series
Join us for a new speaker series that will examine and analyze the role of museums as places of possibility. Hear from a variety of museum professionals about how they are revisioning museums to expand their role from simply caretakers of collections to offering a broad spectrum of programs, services and opportunities to support, engage and enhance the community.