Thomas Krens, director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, will present "The Art of Business and the Business of Art" during the next installment of The University Lectures at Syracuse University at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 13 in the College of Law Grant Auditorium. The lecture is free and open to the public.
As director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Krens is also the director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Guggenheim Museum SoHo in New York City, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain and the Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin.
Krens has dramatically increased the visibility of the Guggenheim and increased attendance from 450,000 visitors in 1990 to almost three million worldwide. The acclaimed "Art of the Motorcycle" show at New York's Guggenheim (a Krens' brainchild) was the most popular exhibition in the museum's 61-year history, and Krens' "China: 5000 Years" exhibition was unprecedented for its display of antiquities of such quality that it was hailed among the greatest exhibitions of Chinese art ever assembled.
Among Krens' other accomplishments since joining the Guggenheim in 1988 include the restoration and expansion of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the landmark Frank Lloyd Wright building, a new storage and technical services facility on New York City's West Side and the addition of the Guggenheim Museum SoHo. International accomplishments include the 1997 opening of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and the Deutsch Guggenheim, which was jointly established by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and the Deutsche Bank.
Krens holds a bachelor's degree from Williams College and master's degrees from the SUNY Albany and Yale University. His memberships include the
Association of Art Museum Directors, the Aspen Institute Italia, the President's Committee on the Art Gallery and British Art Center at Yale University; the Societe Kandinsky of the Centre Georges Pompidou and the Gesellschaft fur Moderne Kunst am Museum Ludwig.
The University Lectures: Knowledge Crowns Those Who Seek Her is a cross-disciplinary lecture series that brings to the University individuals of exceptional accomplishment in the areas of architecture and design; the humanities and the sciences; and public policy, management and communications. The lecture series is supported through a generous contribution by SU Trustee Robert B. Menschel '51.
