Miami University Art Museum hires new director who has worked around the world

The College of Creative Arts at Miami University recently announced the appointment of Dr. John “Jack” Green as the new director and chief curator of the Miami University Art Museum.

“What excites me most about my new position at the Miami University Art Museum is the opportunity to work with the museum staff, and to collaborate across the College of Creative Arts and Museums Miami Center to develop new exhibits, programs, and initiatives that will best serve the students, staff, faculty of the university, and the southwest Ohio community,” said Green.

Green comes to the Miami University Art Museum from the American Center of Research in Jordan, where he served as the associate director.

Green arrived in Ohio with his family at the end of June from Amman, Jordan, where they had been living and working for the past four years. He, his wife, Akemi Horii, and their child, Ayaka Horri-Green, now reside in Mason.

“I’m really happy to be here, and I have a lot of different experiences to share but also, it’s great to be at this wonderful museum at Miami University back in the university art museum sector,” Green said.

Green’s professional background is working in art and archeology museums. He started off doing research in a British museum with the Department of the Middle East, and he did his Ph.D. on a site in Jordan, where they have several collections. That led him to get a job at the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archeology at the University of Oxford, where he became a curator for Ancient Near East.

“I was responsible for coming up with the galleries and doing the new displays for the Ashmolean Museum for their Ancient Near Eastern Art Collection, and that’s how I got into museums, professionally,” said Green.

He has also worked as a chief curator at the Oriental Institute Museum at the University of Chicago. That museum has a lot of different artifacts from all over the Middle East and North Africa.

“We were also doing a lot of collaborative work within the arts, across the universities, working with contemporary artists, and doing all kinds of things that were very collaborative and interdisciplinary,” Green said.

Another role he previously held was at the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York. There, he worked with collections, research and exhibitions in a senior administration role.

“The thing that attracted me to this position was, first of all, the opportunities that this museum provides for teaching and learning, and for the local community as well. Also, the size of this museum is perfect for me. I love the fact that we are a small-to-medium-sized museum, but really punching above its weight in terms of what it achieves and what it can deliver to the communities that it serves,” Green said.

Green was named the director in August after an extensive search and he assumed the leadership role from retiring MUAM director, Dr. Robert Wicks.

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