The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) has appointed Brian Ferriso, the longtime director of the Portland Art Museum (PAM), as its next director, effective December 1. Ferriso succeeds Agustín Arteaga, who left last year to lead the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. During his 18-year tenure at PAM, Ferriso grew the endowment by $40 million, eliminated $7 million in debt, doubled curatorial staff, and made the museum free for visitors 17 and under. He also oversaw major collection diversification, co-commissioned Jeffrey Gibson’s U.S. Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale, and will open a 100,000-square-foot expansion funded by a $140 million capital campaign.
This appointment matters because the DMA is poised for its own major expansion of its Edward Larrabee Barnes–designed building, having selected Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos in 2023. Ferriso’s track record of leading a large-scale capital project and his philosophy of a “people-centric, program-focused” 21st-century museum align with the board’s ambition to redefine the institution for the next 40 to 100 years. His hiring signals a strategic move to balance institutional growth with community engagement and curatorial innovation.