Kelly Taxter, who took over as director of the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill in March, has resigned.
“It was a very difficult decision to resign from my position,” Ms. Taxter said in a statement issued by the museum. “It has been wonderful to be part of the excitement and energy that has surrounded the institution since I began, and I thank the staff for their dedication and hard work through a transitional and complex time.”
Ms. Taxter came to the Parrish from the Jewish Museum in Manhattan, where she had been the Barnett and Annalee Newman Curator of Contemporary Art.
“Kelly was a real breath of fresh air and a real force of energy in the museum,” said Mary E. Frank, the museum’s co-chair, in a telephone conversation. “It was her vision of the artists and the exhibitions that she could bring to the museum that was very, very exciting.”
Ms. Frank cited as an example a show of work by Jacqueline Humphries, a well-known artist who lives on the North Fork, that will take place next year. “Kelly was instrumental in putting that on our exhibition calendar. She brought a whole new vibe to the museum in terms of young artists,” as well as a new demographic of donors and supporters.
After Terrie Sultan, the previous director, resigned in June 2020, Ms. Frank and Mark Renton, her co-chair, decided it was time for a blank piece of paper, “and Kelly was the one the search committee chose to write on it. She did just what I was talking about. It was a great year.”
The search for a new director will begin in the new year.
