Martina Droth to be next director of Yale Center for British Art
The Yale Center for British Art’s chief curator will assume leadership of the largest collection of British art outside the UK as public reopening nears.
Photo by Nick Mead
NEW HAVEN, CT (January 14, 2025) — Yale President Maurie McInnis announced today that Martina Droth, an art historian and curator who has served in a series of prominent roles at the Yale Center for British Art (YCBA) over sixteen years, will be the museum’s next Paul Mellon Director effective January 15, 2025.
Droth succeeds Courtney J. Martin, who is now executive director of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. Richard Brodhead, a former dean of Yale College and former president of Duke University, has served as YCBA’s interim director since July 1, 2024.
“The YCBA will benefit from being led by an art historian and curator who has been instrumental in its success,” wrote McInnis in a message to the Yale community. “Martina has been a driving force behind YCBA’s long-range strategy for research, collections, and exhibitions. She is now playing a vital role in reimagining the YCBA’s collection installation and conceiving a new curatorial program in readiness for the museum’s reopening in spring 2025.”
Since coming to Yale in 2009, Droth has curated several impressive exhibitions, including Bill Brandt | Henry Moore, “Things of Beauty Growing”: British Studio Pottery, and Sculpture Victorious: Art in an Age of Invention, 1837–1901. Two forthcoming exhibitions curated by Droth coincide with the museum's reopening year and feature contemporary artists: Tracey Emin: I Loved You Until the Morning and Hew Locke: Passages. Her vision and extensive knowledge of British art were also instrumental in shaping the reimagined hang of the collection.
“As interim director, I’ve had the privilege to watch the Yale Center for British Art prepare for a dazzling reopening,” Brodhead said. “Martina Droth has been a key driver of this rebirth. With her warmth, breadth of knowledge, transatlantic contacts, and love of the museum’s art and its people, she will make an extraordinary leader for a unique cultural resource. I couldn’t be happier for YCBA’s future.”
Droth’s career at the YCBA has been dedicated to innovative scholarship, teaching, and community engagement. She has secured resources that support the museum’s scholarly initiatives, such as the multi-year Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grants with which she developed the research strategy at the YCBA. Her efforts advancing the YCBA’s mission have often involved collaborative efforts with renowned external institutions such as Tate Britain, the Fitzwilliam Museum at the University of Cambridge, and the Getty Museum.
Among her many initiatives at the YCBA is “The View from Here: Accessing Art Through Photography,” a program for New Haven high school students, in collaboration with the Lens Media Lab at the Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage. She also introduced students from New Haven Promise into the Curatorial division of the YCBA and created internship opportunities for undergraduates through the Association of Research Institutes in Art History, among other programs.
“This wonderful institution has been my home base for sixteen years, and I am thrilled to lead it into its next chapter—one where we continue to push the possibilities of scholarship, exhibitions, and public programming,” said Droth. “The YCBA’s success has always been built on collaboration—amongst our talented staff, faculty, students, and our wider community—and I look forward to working with all of these groups to continue expanding the museum’s reach, deepen its impact, and make it a vital and welcoming space of cultural exchange, inspiration, and discovery.”
About the Yale Center for British Art
The Yale Center for British Art (YCBA) houses the largest collection of British art outside the United Kingdom, encompassing works from the fifteenth century to the present in a range of media. The museum offers a vibrant, year-round program of events and exhibitions in person and online. Presented to the university by collector and philanthropist Paul Mellon (Yale College, Class of 1929), the museum opened to the public in 1977. Visit the YCBA at britishart.yale.edu, and connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube @yalebritishart.
