The Orlando Museum of Art (OMA) has concluded its search for its new chief curator, promoting Coralie Claeysen-Gleyzon after six years of service in the collections and curatorial departments. Claeysen-Gleyzon replaced Orlando Art Museum chief curator Hansen Mulford, who quietly retired after 42 years this March. According to the Orlando SentinelMulford retired without notice to staff.
Born in France and raised in Niger, Africa, Claeysen-Gleyzon has been with the WMA since January 2018, and has held various positions as Associate Curator, Curator and, most recently, Interim Head of Collections and Exhibitions.
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At the museum, she has organized exhibitions such as her centennial retrospective (on view through May 5) and “Visual Conversations: Expressions of Individuality and Community,” starting in 2020. She has worked abroad, including stints as gallery director of the Third Line Gallery. in Doha, Qatar, and as an independent art consultant in Beirut, Lebanon.
Claeysen-Gleyzon takes on her new role as the OMA continues to navigate the fallout from the FBI raid on a show of paintings attributed to Jean-Michel Basquiat but whose authenticity has been unraveled as more details of the nine-year FBI investigation have been made public. In April last year, a former auctioneer admitted that he helped create and sell the works.
The headline raid set off an exodus of museum leadership, including former OMA director Aaron De Groft, who was ousted just days later and has since been sued by the museum for fraud, breach of fiduciary duty and conspiracy. (De Groft sued the museum for wrongful termination, defamation and breach of contract). Former board chair Cynthia Brumback also left amid allegations that she and De Groft concealed from colleagues that the museum had served a subpoena before the contested exhibition, titled “Heroes & Monsters,” opened in February of 2022.
That same April, the museum named Cathryn Mattson as its new executive director and CEO. Mattson succeeded interim director Luder Whitlock, who replaced De Groft; Whitlock resigned after less than two months on the job. The museum has tried to re-engage with the Orlando community, launching initiatives such as commissioning the Orlando-based law firm Akerman to investigate the circumstances of the Basquiat scandal.
In a statement, Mattson praised Claeysen-Gleyzon’s “deep relationships within Orlando’s arts and culture community and beyond,” adding that he looks forward to working with the curator as they “lead OMA into its next chapter.”
