Franklin Sirmans has been the Director of the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) since 2015. Prior to joining PAMM, he was the Department Head and Curator of Contemporary art at Los Angeles County Museum of Art from 2010 until 2015. At LACMA Sirmans organized Noah Purifoy: Junk Dada, Variations: Conversations in and Around Abstract Painting, and Futbol: The Beautiful Game, among many other exhibitions. From 2006 to 2010, he was Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at The Menil Collection in Houston where he organized several exhibitions including NeoHooDoo: Art for a Forgotten Faith, Steve Wolfe: Works on Paper, Maurizio Cattelan: Is There Life Before Death? and Vija Celmins: Television and Disaster, 1964-1966. In 2009 Sirmans was awarded the Gold Rush Award by the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation, he was the winner of the 2007 David C. Driskell Prize, and artistic director of Prospect.3 New Orleans from 2012-2014.
Franklin Sirmans
“Our grantees range from small arts organizations with one staff member to major museums, yet they all provide essential resources for artists as well as innovative platforms for critical cultural dialogue. Creative risk-taking is at the heart of this country’s most meaningful social, political, and cultural developments, therefore we are proud to stand behind artist-centered organizations that support experimental practice.”
Joel Wachs, President