Harvard Club Luncheon with Frank Verpoorten - Revival of Naples Art, A Legacy Institution: A Case Study

12:00pm - 2pm on Monday, March 14, 2022 (Revised Date)
Club Room at Tiburon Golf Club at the Ritz Carlton Resort, 2620 Tiburon Drive, Naples, FL

Join us for this exciting luncheon as we hear from Frank Verpoorten, Executive Director and Chief Curator of Naples Art. Before joining Naples Art, Frank served as Director and Chief Curator of Artis—Naples, The Baker Museum for seven years. Frank will talk about Naples Art's founding and initial presence in the community, and Naples Art’s ascent to prominence, as well as some of the challenges encountered along the way; finally presenting the strategic plan on the outlook for the future.

Frank Verpoorten has more than twenty years of experience at cultural institutions and museums in Brussels, Belgium, New York City, and Southwest Florida. As an art historian trained in 19th-century European academic art and knowledgeable in Pan-American modern and contemporary art, he has curated and organized over one hundred exhibitions, most notably among them Surrealism in Belgium: The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (2014), The Duchamp Family of Artists (2014), and Museum to Scale 1/7 (2015).  Originally from Brussels, Verpoorten moved to New York City in 2000, where he served curatorial and directorial roles at the Dahesh Museum of Art, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, and the Museum of Modern Art. From 2009 to 2012 he worked as Cultural Attaché for the Delegation of Flanders (Belgium) to the U.S.A. in New York.

 Before joining Naples Art, he served as Director and Chief Curator of Artis—Naples, The Baker Museum for seven years, earning the appreciation, support, and friendship of the Southwest Florida community through his brand of successful, world-class exhibitions, his tireless advocacy of the permanent collection, and the judicious acquisitions he made. From 2012 to 2020, Verpoorten brought stimulating exhibition seasons to Naples that offered a unique balance comprising installations with works from the collection, impactful national and international exhibitions, as well as surveys of emerging or under-recognized artists. An ambitious museum leader with an endless intellectual curiosity, Verpoorten was The Baker Museum’s longest serving Director. He propelled the institution to a new level of excellence and substantially grew and advanced the appreciation of the museum’s collection and its foundational sub-collections by conducting research on several hundred works with the museum’s curatorial team. He also expanded the collection substantially by securing major acquisitions from the late Olga Hirshhorn and from Charlotte and Paul Corddry. His research on The Baker Museum’s collection culminated with the publication of the organization’s first permanent collection book.  In 2019, Verpoorten secured a long-term loan of six iconic paintings by the Belgian surrealist René Magritte from a private collection. The addition of these outstanding works with remarkable provenance substantially raised the museum’s profile nationally and internationally.

Mr. Verpoorten attended the Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Belgium, earning dual master’s degrees in art history and cultural studies. He held research and curatorial positions at the Museum for Musical Instruments and the Royal Museum for Fine Arts in Brussels before moving permanently to New York in 2000.

When:

Monday, March 14, 2022

Time:

12:00pm - 2:00pm

Where:

Club Room at Tiburon Golf Club at the Ritz Carlton Resort, 2620 Tiburon Drive, Naples, FL 34109.

Cost:

 $42pp (includes plated fish entree, seasonal vegetable & starch, cookies, coffee, ice tea and lemonade -
GF option available upon request)

Click HERE to purchase a ticket to the luncheon!