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John H. McFadden, Esq., and Christine Poggi, PhD, Elected to the Barnes Foundation Board of Trustees

Philadelphia, PA, January 10, 2019—The Board of Trustees of the Barnes Foundation today announced that John H. McFadden, Esq., and Christine Poggi, PhD, have been elected to the Board of Trustees. 

“My fellow trustees and the Barnes staff join me in welcoming Christine and John to the Board,” says Joseph Neubauer, Chair of the Barnes Foundation Board of Trustees. “Between Christine’s deep knowledge of the history of art and academic achievements at the some of the country’s most prominent universities, and John’s professional background and dedication to important cultural and philanthropic causes, the Barnes will benefit significantly from their expertise.” 

“I am delighted to join the Board of Trustees of the Barnes—a treasure for both the public and academic community,” says Dr. Poggi. “With its strong educational mission and progressive programs, along with the compelling research being done on its legendary art collection, the Barnes is a leader in the field.”

“I believe firmly in the Barnes’s strategic priority to make the arts accessible to all,” says McFadden. “It will be an honor to work alongside my fellow trustees and Barnes staff to support the innovative work being done to engage the widest and most diverse audience in its history.”

John H. McFadden, Esq., is a founder of and partner at McFadden, Pilkington & Ward LLP, an international law firm. A graduate of Harvard University (BA), Columbia University (MBA), and Fordham University (JD), McFadden has practiced law since 1978. Active with various cultural organizations in Greater Philadelphia, McFadden serves on the boards of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Academy of Music, and the Curtis Institute of Music. McFadden also serves as a director of the Easton Coach Company and the Ongava Game Reserve in Namibia, Africa. 

McFadden lives in Philadelphia with his wife, Lisa D. Kabnick, Esq., a senior advisor at Pepper Hamilton LLP. Kabnick serves as vice chair of the board of Philadelphia Media Network (publisher of The Philadelphia Inquirer) and is a member of several other boards.

Dr. Christine Poggi is the Judy and Michael Steinhardt Director of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Before joining NYU in 2017, she taught for 30 years in the History of Art Department at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Poggi’s work has focused on the early 20th-century European avant-gardes, the invention of collage and constructed sculpture, the rise of abstraction, and the relationship of art to changing forms of labor, technology, and new media. Her writing has also addressed the interplay of text and image, the many uses of newspaper in modern art, the representation of the crowd, and the engagement with theater and performance in modern art from the mid-19th century to the present. 

Dr. Poggi’s publications include In Defiance of Painting: Cubism, Futurism, and the Invention of Collage (Yale 1992); Inventing Futurism: The Art and Politics of Artificial Optimism (Princeton 2008; awarded the Howard R. Marraro Prize from the Modern Language Association); and the co-edited volume, Futurism: An Anthology (Yale 2009). She has received fellowships from the Fulbright Commission, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Association of University Women, the Dedalus Foundation, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, among others. Dr. Poggi is currently at work on a book that will address the nexus of immigration, border crossing, mapping, and labor in contemporary performance, photography, and film. Tentatively titled On the Other Side: The Performance of Exile, Migration, and Labor in Contemporary Art, the book will focus on the work of Michelangelo Pistoletto, Tehching Hsieh, Santiago Sierra, Mona Hatoum, Chantal Akerman, Yto Barrada, and Teddy Cruz.

The Board of Trustees of the Barnes Foundation:
Joseph Neubauer, Chair 
Aileen Kennedy Roberts, Vice Chair
Stephen J. Harmelin, Esq., Treasurer
The Honorable Jacqueline F. Allen, Secretary
John J. Aglialoro
John R. Alchin
Sheldon M. Bonovitz, Esq. 
Pamela D. Bundy
Daniel M. DiLella
Catherine Liggins Hughes
John H. McFadden, Esq. 
Christine Poggi, PhD
Brenda A. Thompson, PhD

ABOUT THE BARNES FOUNDATION 
The Barnes Foundation is a non-profit cultural and educational institution that shares its unparalleled art collection with the public, organizes special exhibitions, and presents programming that fosters new ways of thinking about human creativity. The Barnes collection is displayed in ensembles that integrate art and objects from across cultures and time periods, overturning traditional hierarchies and revealing universal elements of human expression. Home to one of the world’s finest collections of impressionist, post-impressionist, and early modernist paintings—including the largest groups of paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Paul Cézanne in existence—the Barnes brings together renowned masterworks by such artists as Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, and Vincent van Gogh, alongside ancient, medieval, Renaissance, and non-Western art as well as metalwork, furniture, and decorative art.

The Barnes Foundation was established by Dr. Albert C. Barnes in 1922 to “promote the advancement of education and the appreciation of the fine arts and horticulture.” Since moving to the heart of Philadelphia in 2012, the Barnes has expanded its commitment to teaching visual literacy in groundbreaking ways, investing in original scholarship relating to its collection and enhancing accessibility throughout every facet of its program.

The Barnes Foundation is open Wednesday–Monday, and tickets can be purchased on-site, online, or by calling 215.278.7200. Ticket prices and current hours are listed on our website.

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Deirdre Maher, Director of Communications
215.278.7160, press@barnesfoundation.org 
Online press office