ICP Selects Mark Robbins as Its New Executive Director

The Board of Trustees of the International Center of Photography announced today that it has selected Mark Robbins, Dean of the School of Architecture and Senior Advisor on Architecture and Urban Initiatives at Syracuse University, to be the next Executive Director of ICP. The decision is the culmination of an international search that began in August 2011, after Willis E. “Buzz” Hartshorn, Executive Director since 1994 and Ehrenkranz Director since 2001, declared his intention to transition to a new role at ICP.

Caryl Englander, Chair of the Board, said, “Mark Robbins brings a record of exceptional leadership to ICP and will help fulfill its mission to be the world’s leading institution dedicated to the practice and understanding of photography in all its forms. We announce his appointment with great enthusiasm, having found in him the Director who can lead ICP into a new era, extending its intellectual and artistic reach while confirming and enhancing all of this great institution’s existing strengths.”

“Through the search process, we discovered that Mark shares ICP’s vision of the transformational power of images, a vision which is at the heart of its mission,” said Jeffrey A. Rosen, President of the Board. “It is a thread which runs through his entire career and explains his deep interest and engagement with photography. He has translated this vision into action at institutions including the National Endowment for the Arts, the Wexner Center for the Arts, and Syracuse University. At each of these, he made a significant impact as a leader and a manager, and as an artist and an educator.”

“I respect Mark's knowledge of photography and value his significant credentials as an educator. He is an excellent choice to lead ICP,” said Hartshorn, who will become Senior Deputy Director focusing on special projects with his successor.

Over the course of a 25-year career, Robbins has held leadership roles at major arts institutions while maintaining his own multidisciplinary practice, which bridges the fields of art, architecture, and critical theory. He has served as the first Curator of Architecture at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio (1993–1999), as Director of Design for the National Endowment for the Arts (1999–2002), and most recently as Dean of the School of Architecture (2004 – present) and Senior Advisor on Architecture and Urban Initiatives (2008 – present) at Syracuse University.