Graham W. J. Beal
Director, Detroit Institute of Arts

Graham W.J. Beal has been the director, president and CEO of the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) since 1999. Since joining the DIA’s leadership team, Beal has continued to build the museum’s outstanding reputation and has strengthened relationships with some of the world’s most well-regarded institutions through loans and programming supported by the DIA’s unparalleled collection. Beal is currently overseeing a major capital campaign, as well as the first substantial renovation and construction at the museum in almost 40 years. He is also leading the complete reinstallation of the permanent collection in redesigned galleries which uses innovative techniques for engaging the general public.

Under Beal's leadership the DIA has organized outstanding exhibitions such as Van Gogh: Face to Face in 2000 and Magnificenza! The Medici, Michelangelo and the Art of Late Renaissance Florence in 2003. Also in 2003, Beal curated the popular exhibition On the Edge: Contemporary Art from the DaimlerChrysler Collection. Among the other exhibitions presented during Beal’s tenure are Degas and the Dance, 2002; American Attitude: Whistler and His Followers, 2003, and Camille Claudel and Rodin: Fateful Encounter, 2006.

Prior to his tenure at the DIA, Beal was director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from 1996 to 1999 and, from 1989 to 1996, at the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska. He was chief curator at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art from 1984 to 1989 and curator and chief curator at Walker Art Center, Minneapolis from 1977-83. Beal has published many exhibition catalogues, books, and articles including an exhibition catalogue on the DIA’s American paintings.

Beal has served on numerous art panels, was a member of the Federal Advisory Committee on International Exhibitions from 1991 to 1995, and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Association of Art Museum Directors and Chair of its Art Issues Committee from 2002 to 2005. He was elected to the Board of Trustees of the American Association of Museums in 2004.

Beal is a native of Great Britain, born in Stratford-on-Avon. He earned degrees in English and Art History from the University of Manchester and in Art History from the Courtauld Institute of Art.


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Left corner image: Ansel Adams, American; Rose and Driftwood, San Francisco, ca. 1932; gelatin silver print. The Lane Collection. ©2007 The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust.