Dr. Charlotte Eyerman, an art historian, curator, and consultant in Los Angeles who is an acknowledged expert in 19th-century French art and a leading authority in modern and contemporary art, has been appointed American Director of FRAME (French Regional and American Museum Exchange) by its Founder and Co-Chairman, Elizabeth Rohatyn. The announcement was made today by Mrs. Rohatyn, on behalf of the Board of Trustees of FRAME, a formal collaboration of 12 museums in France and 12 museums in North America that serves as a catalyst for cultural exchange between France and the United States.

Dr. Eyerman has held curatorial positions at the J. Paul Getty Museum in the Department of Paintings, as well as at the Saint Louis Art Museum, where she was Curator and Department Head of Modern and Contemporary Art. Most recently, she was a director at Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills. Dr. Eyerman has published scholarly essays and has lectured extensively at museums and universities nationally and internationally. She has curated numerous exhibitions including Courbet and the Modern Landscape, for which she was co-curator and co-author of the catalogue (Getty, 2006) and Action/Abstraction: Pollock, deKooning, and American Art, 1940-1976," organized by the Jewish Museum, New York, for which she was a consulting curator, curator of the St. Louis venue, and catalogue essayist (St. Louis, 2008). Action/Abstraction won awards for excellence from the Association of International Art Critics, the Association of Art Museum Curators, and the National Jewish Book Award.

She also curated contemporary and new media exhibitions in St. Louis including Doug Aitken, Migration: Empire, Tom Friedman, Ream, Catherine Yass, Descent, and Claudia Schmacke, Dark Matters. She founded an art consultancy business, ElucidArt, Inc. (Los Angeles, 1999-2002), and was on the faculty at Union College in the Visual Arts Department from 1994-2001, where she was named the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Assistant Professor in 1996. She earned Master's and Ph.D. degrees in the History of Art at the University of California at Berkeley. A recipient of Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Georges Lurcy Foundation fellowships that supported her doctoral work, Dr. Eyerman is fluent in French. She holds a B.A. in English from Holy Cross College, Worcester, Massachustts.

In describing some of the special characteristics that uniquely qualify Dr. Eyerman for the FRAME position, Mrs. Rohatyn noted that “Charlotte is the perfect choice for FRAME as she has been a past member of FRAME representing the Saint Louis Art Museum and served on FRAME’s Executive Committee from 2007-2009. I am delighted that she will be sharing her brilliant art historical expertise and dynamic leadership with FRAME as we move ahead with ambitious FRAME projects.”

In accepting the position, Dr. Eyerman stated, "I am delighted and honored to be appointed American Director of FRAME. I look forward to working closely with Mrs. Rohatyn, the Board, the American museum directors, FRAME staff and consultants, and our colleagues in France. FRAME was built on a vision of intellectual and cultural élan and generosity. I aim to build on that foundation to provide a strong, responsive executive voice that honors the past and ensures future success."

Dr. Eyerman will immediately become involved with the planning and coordination of important FRAME projects, including overseeing FRAME’s role in the continuation of the first and only U.S. exhibition tour to six FRAME museums of The Mourners: Tomb Sculptures from the Court of Burgundy. This critically acclaimed exhibition, co-organized by the Dallas Museum of Art and the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Dijon, France, under the auspices of FRAME, is currently on view through January 2 at the Dallas Museum of Art. It opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in March 2010 before its presentation at the Saint Louis Art Museum this summer. Dr. Eyerman will co-preside at FRAME’s 13th Annual Meeting in Strasbourg, France beginning November 17 where exhibition and educational programs are planned and developed by its members, as well as new initiatives and projects that engage the expertise and eollections of FRAME museums.

A search committee comprised of Elizabeth Rohatyn; Philippe de Montebello, Director Emeritus of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and FRAME Trustee; Michael Conforti, Director of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; Brian Ferriso, The Marilyn H. and Dr. Robert B. Pamplin, Director of the Portland Art Museum, OR; and Bonnie Pittman, The Eugene McDermott Director of Dallas Museum of Art was assisted in its national search by Naree Viner, Principal with Heidrick & Struggles’ Education & Social Enterprise Practice. “Dr. Eyerman’s appointment was the result of an extensive and highly competitive national search,” said Mrs. Rohatyn.

ABOUT FRAME
The French Regional & American Museum Exchange (FRAME), founded in 1999, is a formal collaboration of museums 12 cities in France and 12 cities in North America. FRAME is dedicated to promoting French American cooperation in the cultural arena concerning museums, their collections and their professional staffs. It fosters partnerships, projects and exchanges of information, personnel, technology and resources. The projects range from a shared website to joint exhibitions, educational resources and programs, and publications. They serve the cultural needs of each country and educate a constituency of great size, breadth and distribution. The museums of FRAME are all purposely drawn from regions outside the economic and governmental capitals of both countries, in order to draw attention to, and broadly share, the richness of cultural resources that characterize these institutions and regions.

Thanks to this unique consortium, extraordinary collections are placed at the service of an ever wider public on both sides of the Atlantic as these institutions share and exchange works of art, scholarship, ideas and technology in long-term and ever-evolving partnerships among their constituents. Information about FRAME including exhibitions, highlights of collections from FRAME museums, educational resources, and member museums can be found at www.framemuseums.org.

FRAME is a 501(c) 3 U.S. non-profit corporation with offices in the United States and France. It is led by co-presidents Elizabeth Rohatyn (USA) and Marie-Christine Labourdette, Director of French Museums, Direction des Musées de France, Paris (FRANCE). Richard R. Brettell, Ph.D., was the founding director of FRAME (USA) and served in that position until May 2010. Pierre Provoyeur, Conservateur Général du Patrimoine at the Direction des Musées de France, serves as Director of FRAME in France.

The FRAME Board of Trustees includes Elizabeth Rohatyn, Philippe de Montebello, Pierre Rosenberg, Princess Laure de Beauveau-Craon, Baroness Philippine de Rothschild de Beaumarchais, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Wilmers, Mr. Gary Wolff, Dr. Richard R. Brettell. FRAME is funded by its member museums and various foundations and corporate sponsors. In
France, extra funding comes from the municipalities in which the FRAME museums are located. It receives financial and logistic support from France’s Ministry of Culture and Communication, particularly for projects credited with the "Exposition d'intérêt national" label. FRAME is generously supported by contributions from The Florence J. Gould Foundation; The
Annenberg Foundation; The Felix & Elizabeth Rohatyn Foundation; the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation; The Eugene McDermott Foundation, The Terra Foundation for American Art; Bank of the West - Member, BNP Paribas; Sotheby's; Gary and Sherry Wolff; Mr. and Mrs. Robert Wilmers, le groupe Saint-Gobain; Constance Goodyear-Baron; Boucheron; Federal Council on the Arts and Humanities; the U.S. Department of State; and the many generous “Friends of FRAME.”

PROGRAMS AND ACTIVITIES
Exhibitions. FRAME has originated many exhibitions of works of art drawn largely or completely from member collections, which have traveled to member museums. Additionally, information and images from many past exhibitions are archived on the FRAME website. Publications. FRAME has produced a series of publications and exhibition catalogs of scholarly
importance and popular interest.

Education Programs. FRAME has developed a wealth of innovative educational programs and online resources designed to illuminate and bring special meaning to the permanent collections of FRAME museums and engage American and French communities with each others’ culture. The educational programs of FRAME are made possible by the generous support of The Annenberg Foundation.

Online Collections. FRAME’s online Galleries bring together more than a thousand images and information about works of art from its member museums, which can be sorted and explored based on geography, epoch and location. Special online collections, such as New Acquisitions, highlight recent additions to FRAME museum collections.

Professional collaboration. Through biannual meetings in France and the U.S. funded by a generous gift from The Florence J. Gould Foundation, a broad range of museum professionals, including educators, curators, registrars, directors, and others gain a deeper understanding of each other’s practices, cultures and audiences while creating new exhibitions, publications and other programs. Meetings act as focal points for the collaborative activities that take place all year.

Press Coverage. FRAME exhibitions have been extensively covered in the U.S. and European media, bringing special attention to our members’ treasures and curatorial insight. Portal to French and American regional museums. The FRAME website provides ready access to information about and web links to its member museums, thereby fostering interest in
these institutions and tourism in their regions.