The Dallas Museum of Art has announced the appointment of Brian Ferriso as its new director, effective December 1, 2025. Ferriso, who has served as director of the Portland Art Museum since 2006, will succeed Agustín Arteaga, who stepped down from the position last year and was subsequently named director of Sacramento's Crocker Art Museum earlier this year.
During his nearly two-decade tenure at the Portland Art Museum, Ferriso has achieved remarkable financial and institutional growth. Under his leadership, the museum's endowment increased by $40 million while eliminating $7 million in unfunded debt from its balance sheets. He also doubled the museum's curatorial staff, with approximately half of those positions being endowed in perpetuity, ensuring long-term stability for the institution.
Ferriso's commitment to accessibility is evident in the Portland Art Museum's current policies, which provide free admission to visitors 17 and under and free school tours through the Art Access Endowment program. His leadership has also focused significantly on diversifying the museum's permanent collection, with particular emphasis on acquiring important works by underrepresented artists, including Indigenous, Black, and women artists.
The Portland Art Museum achieved international recognition under Ferriso's guidance, serving as the co-commissioning institution for Jeffrey Gibson's American Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale. Additionally, the museum is set to open a major expansion in November, adding nearly 100,000 square feet of space. This ambitious project was made possible through a capital campaign that raised more than $140 million for both construction and endowment purposes.
Sharon Young, the Dallas Museum of Art's board chair and co-chair of the search committee, praised Ferriso's collaborative approach and proven track record. "Brian is a deeply experienced, proven museum director who has a significant track record in Portland. He constantly demonstrated how collaborative and unifying his approach is," Young explained. "As we dream about our future as a 21st-century museum and what that might look like, we were looking for someone who can think with us, envision with us, and lead us to that place."
In discussing his vision for modern museums, Ferriso articulated his belief in three fundamental pillars for 21st-century art museums: objects, people, and programs. He emphasized that while museums historically functioned as 19th-century cabinets of curiosities focused on accumulating disparate objects, contemporary institutions must be people-centric and program-focused. "The approach I took here in Portland was I built up the staff, the program, the curators, [thinking] about, how do we create community relevance? How do we change the program? How do we become more people centric?" Ferriso explained.
Ferriso's experience with major construction projects was particularly relevant to his hiring, as the Dallas Museum of Art has its own expansion plans. The museum selected Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos, an architecture firm with offices in Madrid and Berlin, in 2023 to redesign its current Edward Larrabee Barnes-designed building, which opened in 1984. However, the museum has not yet announced specific details about this expansion, including the planned opening date, additional square footage, or capital campaign goals.
Young emphasized that the board sought a director who could match their ambitious vision for the institution's future. "We wanted someone who matches the ambition of the board to be able to execute a big project and define a museum that was built 40 years ago for the next 40, 50, 100 years," she stated. "We wanted someone who brings in community and understands the vital role museums play in the civic community."
Ferriso expressed his enthusiasm for joining the Dallas Museum of Art, citing his long-standing admiration for the institution. Having frequently visited the museum during his previous role as director of the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma, from 2002 to 2006, he noted that the position aligns with his interests in "architecture, relevance, and community connectivity."
One of the most significant aspects of Ferriso's future role involves managing a major promised gift that will transform the museum's collection. In 2005, as part of the Dallas Museum of Art's centennial celebrations, three prominent Dallas collector couples made an unprecedented pledge. Marguerite and Robert Hoffman, Cindy and Howard Rachofsky, and Deedie and Rusty Rose committed to bequeathing their entire collections to the museum upon their deaths.
This donation arrangement is particularly unique in the museum world, as the Dallas Museum of Art will receive whatever remains in each collection at the time of the collectors' deaths. This means the collectors can continue adding to or selling from their collections throughout their lifetimes, ensuring the eventual donations remain current and relevant rather than becoming historical time capsules.
Ferriso expressed his excitement about this dynamic approach to collection building, noting his longstanding relationships with all three families. "I love what they've laid out. I think it's really inspiring," he said. "They've taken a dynamic approach, where they're still collecting. Their collections are meeting the moment and being responsive to the times—and not a time capsule. When they eventually do come, I think they will be the most relevant that they could be. I think it could become a center in the country, if not the world, for modern and contemporary art."
