Maria Ann Conelli, executive director of New York's American Folk Art Museum, announced on the museum's website on May 3 that she would be leaving in July to return to academia.
The financially-troubled institution missed $3.7 million in payments to a debt service fund connected to bonds issued to construct a new building, it said in a January filing.
Attendance and revenue figures fell short over the past decade even with the success of several of the museum's exhibitions. For one, Conelli noted the recent Infinite Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts, a remarkable display at the Park Avenue Armory in March, drew in 25,000 visitors.
Adding to the museum's woes, former board president Ralph O. Esmerian, the one-time owner of the jewelry company Fred Leighton and once among the musem's biggest patrons, was charged in a $217 million fraud last November.
The museum currently has on view, “'Eugene Von Bruenchenhein: ‘Freelance Artist—Poet and Sculptor—Inovator—Arrow maker and Plant man—Bone artifacts constructor—Photographer and Architect—Philosopher,’” "Perspectives: Forming the Figure," and notable quilt displays.
