Graham Beal, a native of Great Britain, was born in Stratford-on-Avon
and grew up near Hastings on the south coast of England. He
has degrees in English and art history from the University of
Manchester and the Courtauld Institute of Art.
After commencing his museum career at Sheffield City Art Galleries,
he moved to the United States in 1973, working for one year
at the University of South Dakota before moving on to Washington
University in St. Louis as Art Gallery Director.
In 1977, Beal became curator at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis,
an institution renowned for its interdisciplinary approach to
contemporary art. He subsequently became chief curator and worked
there until 1983, when he returned to England to be the director
of the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the University of
East Anglia until 1984. He returned to the U.S. to take the
position of chief curator at the San Francisco Museum of Modern
Art, which he left in 1989 to become Director of the Joslyn
Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska. In July 1996, he became the director
of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In 1999, Beal joined
the DIA, where he is the director, president, and CEO.
Beal has organized more than 40 exhibitions, many of which have
toured nationally. His publications include books on the American
paintings collection of the DIA, on contemporary British sculpture,
and the artist Jim Dine, as well as articles in the monthly
art journal Apollo. He has served on numerous art panels, was
a member of the Federal Advisory Committee on International
Exhibitions from 1991 to 1995, and a member of the Board of
Trustees of the Association of Art Museum Directors and chair
of its Art Issues Committee from 2002–2004. He was elected
to the board of trustees of the American Association of Museums
in 2004.
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