AARRTT DIRECTOR KRISTEN SHEPHERD Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg By Aaron R. Fodiman JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017 | TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE 129 A fter growing up in Pinellas County, Kristen Shepherd went to Washington, D.C. to attend George Washington University, where she received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in art history with a focus on Pre-Raphaelite art. Two decades later, she has returned to take over as the director of the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg by the unanimous approval of the board of trustees to succeed former Director Dr. Kent Lydecker, who retired in March. She is only the sixth director in the museum’s history and its first female director. Kristen was chosen for her perspective as an art historian and her strong business acumen. She began her career in 1999 at Sotheby’s auction house in New York, where she took on leadership roles in strategic initiatives and special projects that involved a wide variety of disciplines from financial and real estate to marketing and publications. In 2010, she was selected as a Marshall Memorial Fellow by the German Marshall Fund and was later chosen for the Arts Leadership Institute in New York in 2012. As the director of Membership and Annual Fund at the Whitney Museum of American Art from 2008 to 2013, Kristen developed and launched a “Curate Your Own Membership” program to attract and retain members by customizing benefits to fit a members’ individual interests. Most recently, she was the associate vice president of Audience Strategy and Services for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where she led a program that created engagement opportunities for diverse local audiences that led to increased visitor attendance and memberships by nearly 20 percent during her time there. Kristen’s passion for the arts runs deep. Her mother Judith Mitchell was the vice president and general manager of Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater until she moved to West Palm Beach, where she has served as the CEO of the Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts for the past 25 years. Kristen says the St. Petersburg Museum was the first museum she ever visited, and therefore it is a special touchstone for her with its diverse collection that touches on so many periods of art. For Kristen, it is that breadth of the museum’s collection that gives it a distinct advantage when it attempts to engage a broad spectrum of visitors and supporters. Mark Mahaffey, the chair of the museum’s board of trustees, says he is “thrilled” that the national search for this position resulted in finding a leader who has roots in our region. Kristen will have the assistance of the museum’s Chief Curator Dr. Jerry Smith, who has been serving as the museum’s interim director since Dr. Lydecker’s retirement, as she continues to build on the organization’s 51-year history. 9 EDITOR’S NOTE: The Museum of Fine Arts at 255 Beach Drive N.E. in St. Petersburg has a world-class collection of art that includes ancient Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Asian, African, pre-Columbian and Native American Art, along with work by great artists such as Monet, Rodin, O’Keeffe and de Kooning. For more information, call (727) 896-2667 or visit mfastpete.org. Kristen Shepherd is the new director of the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg.
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