Ann Philbin
Director, Hammer Museum
Ann Philbin is director of the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. Under her leadership, the museum has focused on thematic contemporary and scholarly historical exhibitions. Philbin created public programs that regularly feature many of the most provocative and creative thinkers of our time. In the position since 1999, she founded the museum’s Hammer Contemporary Collection as well as the Hammer Projects series, which is focused on emerging artists. Under her direction, the Hammer has mounted more than 100 exhibitions and installations, many of which have traveled nationally and internationally. She has also overseen substantial building renovations. The Hammer launch with LAXART “Made in L.A. 2012″, the first in a new series of biennial exhibitions focused on emerging and overlooked artists from the Los Angeles region. Prior to her tenure at the Hammer, Philbin spent 10 years as director of The Drawing Center in New York, where she curated and organized historical and contemporary exhibitions of works on paper.