Honolulu museum director leaving to helm Canadian gallery
STAR-ADVERTISER / DEC. 2011
Stephan Jost, director of the Honolulu Museum of Art, is leaving to become the director and CEO of the Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada’s largest art museum.
The director for the Honolulu Museum of Art is leaving his post for the Art Gallery of Ontario, it was announced today.
Stephan Jost, whose last day will be March 11, is heading to Toronto to become the Michael and Sonja Koerner director and CEO of Canada’s largest art museum.
Allison Wong, deputy director of operations and administration, has been named interim director.
Jost joined the museum in 2011. He has a reputation for revitalizing art museums and expanding their reach and appeal to the community. In his five years at the Honolulu Museum of Art, he expanded its education program and doubled membership since 2013, with a majority of new members under the age of 40.
Jost also oversaw the 2011 merger of the Honolulu Academy of Arts and The Contemporary Museum.
24 responses to “Honolulu museum director leaving to helm Canadian gallery”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
That merger was a bad thing.
@ MANDA… I’m curious, why do you think the merger was a bad thing?
Unfortunately, the only way to save any form of “Contemporary Art” in Hawaii was to make this merger happen–for obvious financial reasons. Moreover, locally–“LOCALS” believe that “Football” is the only art-form, because the DOE doesn’t create a forum for children which nurtures their creativities through any true art-form.
sad … but true.
Football, aka, Palei gambling. At work, I hear them say that the new palei sheets are out.
Perhaps Fark, you should confine your comments to something about which you actually know and understand. (If you can find something). My last school sent five kids to the Interlochen Arts camp and three more left and graduated from the Interlochen Academy. (You don’t know what that is. Look it up. It’s a high school that costs 2.5 Punahou’s. Our kids, including my son, went on scholarship.) We have graduates at Juliard, Oberlin and Eastman. We’ve had graduates on Broadway and at the New England Conservatory. Do you want to try sitting in on the Shostakovich Cello Concerto with my son? Didn’t think so because you’ve never heard of it. He was playing it at 15 and composing pieces at my former school that were played by a Chamber Orchestra. We have another graduate who is double majoring in Composition and Musical Theater in Ohio. If you every get as far east as New York, you’ll see his work. One of our graduates, the son of a State Legislator, recently performed Stoppard’s Equus on Broadway. Of course, you’ve never heard of Equus and don’t know how disturbing and moving the play is. You Might recall Maggie Q. You’ve seen her on TV but didn’t know who she was. She is one of our graduates.)
Our graphic arts kids have gone on to Cal Arts and USC. Another is working for Disney. I could go on but I don’t want to confuse you with facts that conflict with what you want to believe.
Oh, I’m sorry. When was the last time you taught a class of children meaningful stuff or ran a school that emphasized the development of all children. Whoops, sorry. Your just one of the B&Ms who haven’t walked into a K12 school since you “wen grad” somewhere around the middle mark.
Sorry, I was getting angry and I meant “you’re”
When did Stoppard stage “Equus?
cellodad is so impressive. What a fine father and gentleman.
Are they having financial problems? The merger may be a very expensive operation. Still, the Museum is a real asset to a cultural desert called Honolulu.
I’ll settle for a dessert instead of a desert.
read the article or press release. They are in very good financial shape. It’s Bishop Museum that is having the money problems since Inouye died -which is why they are selling off assets which is a real shame. The Honolulu museum of art has not done that I think, they have been very well run under their current and now former director and they are profitable. Note membership has doubled.
Hey Manda, get a clue. Merger was 5 years ago. Think it went pretty well. Museum used to be in the toilet, now it is turned around. Pretty simple success story.
A HUGE LOSS FOR HAWAII… ..but–KUDO’S to YOU, STEPHAN! Much success in this new-life passage.
I love the Museum. Sorry to see a good person go.
In this field of work people usually stay for 5 or so years and then move on. Sounds like he did a good job.
The entire state of Hawaii is a museum. Original potholes from Kamehameha days.
Honolulu stands poised to become a major visual art center in the global art scene. A new director who understands this and is not just focused on the ethnicity issues and the local political issues is what we are looking for as a replacement. Then enrollment will increase naturally without pandering to demographics and by doing so diminishing the legacy of the Cookes and so many others, including Twig and his ex wife and not to leave anyone out, Phyllis and so many more. The U of H art department is not living up to its potential. The L.A. and SFO art scenes might become looped in to ours. I want to see native Hawaiian pre contact culture take its rightful place alongside the missionary colonial Hawaiian period, at long last, too.
The Museum lacks native American art. It is good in Asian and some Euro-American art.
We could lock up allie in a glass case, and charge the people a dollar and a half just to see her. Put up a parking lot!
…turn paradise into a parking lot. Joni Mitchell is also a Canadian painter.
Thank you for your service. I’m sorry that the red tape in Hawaii is so thick. Hawaii ‘s leader’s left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.
From paradise to piles of snow drifts and -0 degrees Fahrenheit. Eh.
Worst weather with better leadership on the mainland.