SEATTLE, WA
March 21, 2024
The Frye Art Museum announced today that Amanda Donnan has concluded a nearly seven-year tenure at the museum, most recently as Chief Curator & Director of Exhibitions. Ms. Donnan joined the Frye as Curator in 2017 and oversaw an ambitious curatorial program that both championed local artists and brought the work of national figures to Seattle, increasing the museum’s prominence in the field of contemporary art.
“We are grateful to Amanda for the impactful work she’s done for the Frye,” says Executive Director Jamilee Lacy. “Our audiences as well as our museum colleagues have greatly benefited from her curatorial acumen and deep affinity with artists, which have positioned the Frye as an important site for contemporary discovery. We will continue to build on her commitment to engaging diverse creative voices in thoughtful dialogue on the art of our time.”
During her time at the Frye, Donnan organized more than thirty exhibitions, including landmark presentations duane linklater: mymothersside (2021), the first Frye-organized exhibition to travel nationally to venues including MCA Chicago (2023) and Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (2023-24); Jessica Jackson Hutchins: Wrecked and Righteous (2024), Dress Codes: Ellen Lesperance and Diane Simpson (2019) and Tschabalala Self (2019), as well as the group exhibitions Door to the Atmosphere (2022) and Group Therapy (2018). She spearheaded the ongoing Boren Banner Series public art initiative and contributed to the renewal of the museum’s publishing program, developing brochures, catalogues, and experimental projects such as the ABC’s of Jessica Jackson Hutchins.
Upon the departure of Director and CEO Joseph Rosa in 2022, Donnan served for one year as Interim Director, overseeing all museum operations in addition to her curatorial duties until the arrival of Jamilee Lacy as Executive Director in March 2023. “On behalf of our trustees,” says Board President Stuart Williams, “I commend Amanda for her leadership between executive directors.”
Throughout her tenure, Donnan additionally expanded the museum’s collection, securing significant acquisitions that grew and diversified the permanent collection’s contemporary art holdings. She attracted numerous gifts from first-time donors to the Frye, including artworks by Natalie Ball, Amoako Boafo, Ellen Lesperance, Liz Magor, Jeffry Mitchell, Bony Ramirez, and Tschabalala Self, and funding for acquisitions by Katherine Bradford, Sky Hopinka, Duane Linklater, Gisela McDaniel, Eden Seifu, Cauleen Smith, and Clarissa Tossin. Donnan also oversaw the recent Local Ties initiative, which added works from Gretchen Frances Bennett, Dawn Cerny, Marita Dingus, Wynne Greenwood, and Hanako O’Leary to the collection for the first time. “I am forever grateful to the artists and colleagues who made the last seven years an enriching, transformative time for me and the museum,” says Donnan. “It was a good run that elevated the cultural landscape of the Pacific Northwest.”
Donnan’s final engagement with the Frye will be on May 4, 2024 for the public program “Jessica Jackson Hutchins and Amanda Donnan in Conversation,” taking place during the closing weekend of Jessica Jackson Hutchins: Wrecked and Righteous. Her last exhibition organized for the museum, Twilight Child: Antonia Kuo and Martin Wong, opens to the public on June 15, 2024.
The museum will conduct a national search for a Senior Curator after the appointment of a Director and Curator of Collections, expected to be announced in May 2024.
About the Frye Art Museum
Founded in 1952, the Frye is Seattle’s only free art museum, bringing together art and new ideas within a stunning Olson Sundberg Kundig-designed building in historic First Hill. A founding collection of turn-of-the-century oil paintings is bolstered by a wide range of modern and contemporary art holdings, reflecting our region's evolving identity and a commitment to exploring the art of our time. Learn more at fryemuseum.org.