School of the Museum
of Fine Arts, Boston/SMFA
230 The Fenway, Boston, MA 02115
President Christopher Bratton and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (SMFA) announce the arrival of Sarah M. McKinnon, Ph.D. as the School’s Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the School effective August 1, 2012. McKinnon will drive major institutional planning and play a key role in developing SMFA as a leader for excellence in education and the arts.
“Sarah McKinnon is one of the most distinguished academic leaders in the field of contemporary art and design with an unparalleled record of innovation and success,” says Bratton, SMFA President. “She brings a unique commitment to the education of artists and will have a crucial role in seeing the School to even greater success.”
McKinnon comes to Boston from the Ontario College of Art & Design University (OCAD) where she was Vice President, Academic and on the faculty of Liberal Studies since 2001. During her tenure as OCAD’s chief academic officer, the school achieved degree-granting status and recognition as a university within the Ontario system. In 2007, OCAD introduced their first graduate studies programs including a Master of Fine Arts in Criticism and Curatorial Practice program, an Interdisciplinary Master in Art, Media and Design and an Executive Master of Design in Advertising degree. McKinnon was also instrumental in leading transition to a faculty peer governance system with a university senate.
Prior to OCAD U, McKinnon had a long tenure at the University of Winnipeg as an Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor of Art History, University Art Curator, and Associate Dean and Acting Dean, Faculty of Arts and Science. She has acted as external reviewer for the master’s program in Art History at Carleton University as well as the arts faculty of Western University. Her critical writing portfolio includes three books: Stephen Andrews at Seventy/Stephen Andrews á Soixante-Dix Ans; 27 x Sonia: Portraits by Walter Gramatté and No Man’s Land: The Battlefield Paintings of Mary Riter Hamilton, 1919–1922 and several journal articles, academic papers and book reviews. She is currently working on a biography of Canadian artist Mary Riter Hamilton. She received a Ph.D. and a M.A. from the University of Toronto and a B.A. from Rice University.
McKinnon says, “I am delighted to be joining the faculty, staff and students at SMFA and I very much look forward to making contributions to its distinguished history as an educational and cultural leader in the fine arts.”
About the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston:
Founded in 1876 and accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (SMFA), is one of only three art schools in the country affiliated with a major museum—the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Our mission is to provide an education in the fine arts—for undergraduate and graduate artists—that is interdisciplinary and self-directed. This education values cultural, artistic and intellectual diversity; it embraces a wide range of media; it stresses the development of individual vision and its relation to culture in general; it values equally the knowledge gained by thinking and doing; it is deeply engaged with the world as a whole. If the mission is constant, its practice is always transforming. For more information about our programs and partnerships, visit www.smfa.edu.
