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Sonoma Valley Museum of Art announces Linda Cano as its new Executive Director
Sonoma Valley Museum of Art names new Executive Director
The Sonoma Valley Museum of Art announces Linda Cano as its new Executive Director. Cano brings extensive academic, curatorial, and museum management experience from Fresno, CA, where she resurrected a fine art museum and established an art consulting firm that manages private and public art collections for museums, organizations and individuals. She is slated to start in mid February.
“It is a tremendous honor to join the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art at this exciting time in its history,” said Cano. “I look forward to leading the talented staff and to working with its dedicated Board and many supporters. We will focus on SVMA’s strengths to build momentum in connecting with all visitors and serving the richly diverse North Bay community.”
Cano, chosen from a highly talented pool of candidates, stood out for her work as the Executive Director and Chief Curator of the Fresno Art Museum from 2010 to 2014. At this American Alliance of Museums (AAM) accredited modern and contemporary art museum, Cano doubled membership, stabilized its financial position, and executed a new direction that broadened audiences and established marketing and educational programs for public and donor engagement.
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2015 proved an iconic year for The Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, hallmarked by world-class exhibitions—the works of Richard Diebenkorn and Eleanor Coppola, which attracted substantial crowds and record breaking donations from the community. In its modest seventeen years, Sonoma’s extraordinary “small town” museum has become a force all its own—the most broadly supported and highly respected museum in the North Bay—currently more strongly positioned than ever to build on its success.
“We are thrilled to have Linda Cano join the museum,” said Yvonne Hall, SVMA’s interim Executive Director and a member of the executive search committee. “The Sonoma Valley Museum of Art is in a great position as we look forward to 2016”
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Board President Douglas Fenn Wilson remarks, “I cannot imagine a better fit for SVMA’s leadership than Linda Cano. From the get go, we caught a whiff of intelligence, integrity, prescience, and curatorial experience that cannot help but lift our museum to the next level.”
Cano gathered extensive experience with her firm AXIS Art Consulting on the Mariposa Plaza Activation Project, the primary partner and grant co-author for public art plan invigorating the cultural destination. Cano also taught as a professor at California State University, Fresno from 1993-2010 in both the Art and Design Department and the Classical Languages and Literatures Department. She has been a member of numerous organizations including CREATE CA, an Arts Education Task Force, the Kennedy Center Ensuring the Arts for Any Given Child Project, the Fresno County Office of Education Foundation, American Alliance of Museums and the California Association of Museums among others.
Cano replaces Kate Eilertsen, who served as the Executive Director for the last six years who left to pursue teaching, independent curating, and to start her own consulting firm. Cano holds a Master of Arts from California State University, Fresno and graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts from the same university.
About the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art
Established in 1998, the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art is a membership supported 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization that provides seasonal exhibitions of contemporary and modern art and educational and public programming for children, youth and adults. Its mission is to be, “a magnet of creative energy and cultural inspiration with exhibitions and educational programs that engage the community in the art and ideas of our time, encouraging curiosity and innovation.”
The Sonoma Valley Museum of Art is located at 551 Broadway, one half block up from Sonoma’s historic Plaza. Regular Museum hours are 11am–5pm Wednesday through Sunday. Admission is $5 for adults. Children k–12 are admitted free, as are SVMA members. Additional information is available at www.svma.org by calling (707) 939-7862.
