Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth names director following international search

Following an international search, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth has named the CEO and director of the Honolulu Museum of Art its next director.

Halona Norton-Westbrook starts July 1. She succeeds Marla Price, who in her 30 year career at the museum made it a must-see for art and architecture enthusiasts.

“The Modern is a museum of extraordinary ambition and impact, and I am honored to lead it into the future,” Norton-Westbrook said in a statement. “Museums have the power to foster joy, reflection, and meaningful conversations. I look forward to working alongside the museum’s talented team and dedicated community to expand its reach, deepen its engagement, and continue its tradition of presenting art of the highest quality.”

The Modern’s chair of the board of trustees Rafael G. Garza praised the selection.

“Halona Norton-Westbrook brings an extraordinary combination of vision, leadership, and a deep commitment to art. Her impactful track record of strategic thinking, community engagement, and curatorial excellence makes her the ideal dynamic leader to guide the Modern into its next chapter,” he said in a statement. “We are confident that under her direction, the museum will build upon its remarkable legacy within the Fort Worth community and continue to evolve as a dynamic cultural hub of international significance.”

Norton-Westbrook is a San Francisco native who received her undergraduate degree in art and art history from Mills College, also in San Francisco, followed by a graduate degree in art history from the Courtauld Institute of Art and a doctorate in museology from the University of Manchester.

She has led the Honolulu museum since 2020.

“She’s been a great leader for the museum, steering it through the pandemic right after she arrived,” said Honolulu Museum of Art content strategist Lesa Griffith. “She thinks critically about the role museums play in the 21st century. With a doctorate in museology, museums are her expertise.”

As the 11th director of Hawaii’s largest art museum she became known for her administrative prowess and curatorial eye. She doubled annual attendance from pre-2020 levels, spearheaded its first strategic plan, successfully secured reaccreditation by the American Alliance of Museums and led a $4 million renovation of the art school.

She also secured a major coup with the acquisition of 55 works by leading contemporary African-American artists from Robert and Jean Steele, who also gave artwork to Yale University’s Art Gallery and the Driskell Center, a research center and gallery dedicated to African-American art at the University of Maryland.

She came to Honolulu in January 2020 from the Toledo Museum of Art, where she served as director of curatorial affairs and curator of modern and contemporary art, roles she elevated in January 2016 after serving as an Andrew W. Mellon Leadership Fellow for two years. While there she co-wrote Collection Companion: Toledo Museum of Art with former director Brian P. Kennedy. According to her LinkedIn, she got her professional start in museums while as an undergraduate at Mills as a curatorial and administrative coordinator at the Mills College Art Museum from December 2005-August 2006.

She comes to the Modern during the run of two exhibits, “Alex Da Corte: The Whale,” which opens March 2 and runs through Sept. 7 organized by curator Alison Hearst and “Feeling Color: Aubrey Williams and Frank Bowling,” which runs March 15-July 27, pairing the two artists exhibited together for the first time organized by curator María Elena Ortiz.

Displaying work by Da Corte, a gay man of color, and Williams and Bowling, who were Guyanese, fits Norton-Westbrook’s vision of a museum. As museums seek to diversify their audiences and collections, she described to Mills Quarterly magazine, “this sense of urgency is positive, enhancing not only the frequency but the depth of conversations around the future of art museums and how they can grow in new and different directions to authentically connect with those in their communities.”

This story was originally published February 25, 2025 at 4:43 PM.