Angela Susan Anton, president of the board of trustees of Nassau County Museum of Art, announced that Charles A. Riley II, Ph.D. has been named director of the museum. Dr. Riley’s long association with Nassau County Museum of Art includes having served as curator-at-large and popular presenter of many lectures offered for many exhibitions. He helped curate the museum’s Picasso, Surrealism and Abstract Expressionist exhibitions and recently curated the permanent installation of Western art at a major new private museum in Taiwan as well as several exhibitions in Berlin, Amsterdam, Lausanne, Manhattan and Long Island’s East End.
Dr. Riley is a prolific arts journalist, reviewer and essayist and a celebrated public speaker. His 32 books on art, business and public policy include the recently published Free as Gods: How the Jazz Age Reinvented Modernism, The Jazz Age in France, The Art of Peter Max, Art at Lincoln Center, The Arts and the World Economy, Color Codes, and The Saints of Modern Art. Dr. Riley’s next book, a study of Rodin in Chinese and English, will be published by the Chimei Museum in fall 2017. Among his many connections with exhibitions at Nassau County Museum, Dr. Riley is the author of monographs, most of them published by Abrams, on Ben Schonzeit, Fritz Bultman and Peter Max.
A former Time Inc. reporter who covered the art market as well as Washington for Fortune, Dr. Riley’s articles have appeared in many major art publications including Art & Auction, Art & Antiques and Antiques and Fine Art. He was the editor-in-chief of WE magazine, a bimonthly devoted to people with disabilities. In connection with his work for WE, Dr. Riley won important awards from the Mayor’s Office of the City of New York, Easter Seals, United Cerebral Palsy, the National Recovery Alliance among other organizations. Sought after as a guest commentator on the art market as well as other topics, Dr. Riley has appeared on CNN, NBC, MSNBC, CBS, ABC and Fox News.
He began his publishing career at Doubleday, where he edited several books with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. He was a tenured professor at the City University of New York (CUNY), has been a visiting professor in Shijiazhuang (mainland China) and teaches in Clarkson University’s management program.
Born and raised in Manhasset, Dr. Riley is a summa cum laude graduate of Princeton University and received his Ph.D. from The Graduate Center of CCNY. Dr. Riley and his wife, Dr Keming Liu, a noted translator of Chinese poetry and a professor at CUNY, are residents of Manhattan and Cutchogue.
Dr. Riley succeeds Karl E. Willers, Ph.D. who served as director for seven years. Dr. Willers’s tenure at the Museum included numerous accomplishments such as the recent opening of The Manes Family Art & Education Center and the mounting of many critically-acclaimed exhibitions, among them Milton Avery, Rimer Cardillo Journadas de la memoria, Out of the Vault and Kenny Scharf/Glamorous Graffiti. The board and the staff of the Museum join in wishing Dr. Willers continued success.
Nassau County Museum of Art is located at One Museum Drive in Roslyn Harbor, just off Northern Boulevard, Route 25A, two traffic lights west of Glen Cove Road. Call 516-484-9338 for current exhibitions, events, days/times and directions or visit nassaumuseum.org.
Nassau County Museum of Art is chartered and accredited by New York State as a nonprofit private educational institution and is governed by a privately elected board of trustees. The museum and its programs are made possible through the support of Nassau County under County Executive Ed Mangano and the Nassau County Legislature; the board of trustees and museum members; sponsors of exhibitions and events, government and foundation grants, corporate and private donors as well as earned income.
