Syracuse University Art Museum’s new leader is coming home

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The next executive director and chief curator of the Syracuse University Art Museum is returning to her home area.

Maika Pollack — an art historian, critic, and curator — will begin her new duties this fall. 

Pollack will assume the duties that Vanja Malloy previously held. Malloy who had served as director and chief curator since August 2019, accepted a position at the University of Chicago last September, per a Syracuse University news release at the time. Emily Dittman has been serving as interim director and Melissa Yuen as interim chief curator since last Sept. 23, the university said in the release.

“Maika Pollack brings the talent and vision to support and expand the important role that Syracuse University Art Museum plays in campus life and in the greater Syracuse community,” Gretchen Ritter, Syracuse University’s vice chancellor, provost and chief academic officer, said in a statement. “I look forward to working with her and watching the museum flourish under her leadership.” 

Pollack, who grew up in Central New York, comes to Syracuse University from the University of at Manoa in Honolulu. In Honolulu, she serves as the director and chief curator at John Young Museum of Art and University Galleries. 

Pollack said she is looking forward to joining the Syracuse University community and returning to her home area.

“I am honored to take this role,” Pollack said. “Syracuse University has a long history of graduates who are enormously influential in the arts, from Clement Greenberg and Sol LeWitt to LaToya Ruby Frazier. I’m excited to help make this unique history more visible through exhibitions and publications, and to work with the museum’s talented staff and leadership.”

In her new role, Pollack will report to Marcelle Haddix, associate provost for strategic initiatives. Haddix’s portfolio includes, among other things, all university-wide arts and humanities affiliates and programs.

Pollack’s background

At the University of Hawai’i at Manoa in Honolulu, Pollack established a founding endowment of nearly $500,000, created an imprint with nationally reviewed publications and curated shows with such artists as Ken Okiishi, Tadashi Sato, Stephanie Syjuco, Hadi Fallahpisheh, David Salle and Tetsuo Ochikubo and others, Syracuse said.

She expanded diversity in programming and put together exhibitions lauded in local and national media, resulting in an attendance of almost 40,000 unique visitors in 2022-2023. She also oversaw the creation of a scholarly study room, the rehousing of the museum’s permanent collection, the transition to an updated collections management system and renovations to improve facilities.

Prior to Honolulu, Pollack was co-founder and director of Southfirst, a contemporary art gallery in Brooklyn that presented experimental exhibitions for almost two decades, where her curated shows were reviewed by major publications. 

Previously, Pollack worked as the curatorial assistant to the chief curator at PS1 Contemporary Art Center in Queens, where in 2000 she was part of the original curatorial team for the highly popular “Warm Up” summer performance series. Additionally, she founded the imprint Object Relations. 

Her writing on contemporary art and culture has been widely published. She was the museum exhibition critic for the New York Observer from 2011-2015, Syracuse University noted.

Pollack earned Ph.D. and master’s degrees in the history of art and architecture at Princeton University and a bachelor’s degree in art history and social studies at Harvard University. 

She has taught art history and curatorial studies at Sarah Lawrence College, Pratt University, New York University, the University of Hawai’i at Manoa and Princeton. Her research focuses on the history of photography, late 19th-century European art, feminist art, American art of the 1960s and 70s, contemporary art and postcolonial studies.