Joseph Rosa

The University of Michigan Museum of Art has announced its search for a new director has ended, and Joseph Rosa — the chief curator of architecture and design at the Art Institute of Chicago — will leave his current job on June 30 and assume the UMMA directorship July 1, pending approval by U-M's Board of Regents.

In a prepared statement, U-M President Mary Sue Coleman said: "We are so pleased that Joe Rosa has agreed to lead the University of Michigan Museum of Art at this particularly auspicious and exciting moment in its history. A year after its landmark expansion and restoration reopened to the public, UMMA has more than lived up to its promise of becoming a dynamic meeting place for the arts, offering a diverse range of lively exhibitions, performances, and programs and boasting record attendance.

"As an accomplished scholar, teacher, thinker, and leader with wide-ranging museum experience and numerous publications to his credit, Joe has dedicated his career to bringing the visual arts, design, and culture to life for a broad range of audiences," she said.

Rosa's selection is the result of an international search by a 14-member committee appointed by Coleman. Rosa, 49, will be the seventh director of UMMA.

In January 2009, after nearly 11 years in the post, former UMMA director James Steward — who oversaw UMMA's recent, $41.9 million, 53,000-square-foot expansion and restoration — left to become the director of the Princeton University Art Museum. Since then, 3 interim directors, Ruth Slavin, Ray Silverman, and Kathryn Huss have been in place while Coleman's committee conducted its search.

The expansion to the University of Michigan Museum of Art shortly before the museum's reopening last year.

Ann Arbor News file photo

"I am thrilled and honored to be given this wonderful opportunity to lead the University of Michigan Museum of Art into the future at this very special time in its history," Rosa stated in a press release. According to the university's announcement, Rosa has curated more than 30 exhibitions on contemporary architecture and design and is the author of 14 books. His writings have appeared in Praxis, Architectural Design, Assemblage, Casabella, The History of Photography Journal, Oculus, Architekur & Bauforum, and Progressive Architecture. He is also a noted scholar on the architect Albert Frey — the first disciple of Le Corbusier to build in America — and Julius Shulman, the acclaimed architectural photographer. Prior to joining the Art Institute of Chicago, Rosa was the Helen Hilton Raiser curator of architecture and design at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the curator of architecture at the Heinz Architectural Center at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, the chief curator at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., and the director of the Columbia Architecture Galleries in New York.

Rosa received a bachelor of architecture from the Pratt Institute; a master's degree in architecture and urban design from Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation; and was a doctoral candidate in the Department of Art and Archaeology.

Before the official university announcement, early reports in The Chicago Tribune and the online publication The Architect's Newspaper first announced the news.

Rosa told the Chicago Tribune, in a phone interview, that he finalized his contract Monday and that he's leaving his current position with AIC on good terms. "There's no reason to leave other than to expand my ability upward," he told the Tribune.

Jenn McKee is the entertainment digital journalist for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at jennmckee@annarbor.com or 734-623-2546, and follow her on Twitter @jennmckee.