Wardle Selected as Director of UW Art Museum

The curator of academic initiatives at Duke University’s Nasher Museum of Art has been named as director of the University of Wyoming Art Museum.

Marianne Eileen Wardle, who was born and raised in the Intermountain West, will begin her duties at UW Jan. 29. She succeeds longtime UW Art Museum Director Susan Moldenhauer, who retired Nov. 6. Nicole Crawford, curator of collections, will serve as interim director of the museum.

“We are delighted that an art scholar and museum curator of Dr. Wardle’s stature has agreed to direct this important academic and cultural asset for the university and Wyoming,” UW Provost Kate Miller says. “We are confident she will build on the tremendous work of Susan Moldenhauer that has established the UW Art Museum as one of the fine art museums in the Rocky Mountain West.”

Wardle received a bachelor’s degree in French and art history at Utah State University; a master’s degree in art history at Brigham Young University; and a Ph.D. in art history at Duke University. She has worked at the Nasher Museum of Art for the past 11 years, while teaching courses in art history, women’s studies and museum studies at Duke.

“I strongly believe in the mission of academic museums and the role they play in education, as well as the inspiration and respite they can provide in students’ lives,” Wardle says. “I am excited to be a part of a museum that also is committed to finding ways to engage and enrich the lives of people of all ages beyond the university.”

Through its “Museum as Classroom” approach, the UW Art Museum places art at the center of learning for all ages. Located in the Centennial Complex at 2111 Willett Drive in Laramie, the museum is open Mondays through Saturdays from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday hours are extended to 7 p.m. February through April and September through November. Admission is free.

For more information about the Art Museum, call (307) 766-6622, visit the website at www.uwyo.edu/artmuseum, or follow the museum on Facebook.