Holly Block (December 24, 1958 – October 6, 2017) was an American museum and art gallery director.

Biography

Block was born on

Christmas Eve Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas Day, the festival commemorating the birth of Jesus. Christmas Day is observed around the world, and Christmas Eve is widely observed as a full or partial holiday in anticipation ...

1958 in

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...

, and was named for the celebration's traditional flora. She grew up mostly in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, and attended the Georgetown Day School. She received a bachelor's degree in photography and sculpture from Bennington College in Bennington, Vermont, in 1980. After college she returned to the District of Columbia and went to work for the Washington Project for the Arts, eventually becoming its project coordinator. Block came to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1983, after working with Colab on the Ritz Hotel Project. From 1988 until 2004 she was the director of the alternative Tribeca art space

Art in General Art in General was a non-profit contemporary art exhibition space known for its vibrant and ground-breaking projects as a formidable and longstanding New York City alternative space, focused on giving meaningful resources and opportunities to ar ...

. She is perhaps best-remembered for her time as executive director of the

Bronx Museum of the Arts The Bronx Museum of the Arts (BxMA), also called the Bronx Museum of Art or simply the Bronx Museum, is an American cultural institution located in Concourse, Bronx, New York. The museum focuses on contemporary and 20th-century works created by A ...

. Block was the executive director of the museum from 2006 until her death in 2017 and during that span instituted free admission and quadrupled the number of visitors to the institution. In 2013 the Bronx Museum was chosen by the State department to do the American pavilion at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

which in turn chose an exhibition of work by Sarah Sze co-curated by Block and Carey Lovelace. Her portrait is included in the series of Female museum art director by artist

Amy Chaiklin Amy is a female given name, sometimes short for Amanda, Amelia, Amélie, or Amita. In French, the name is spelled ''"Aimée"''. People A–E * Amy Acker (born 1976), American actress * Amy Vera Ackman, also known as Mother Giovanni (1886– ...

br>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Block, Holly 1958 births 2017 deaths People from New York City Female archivists Directors of museums in the United States Women museum directors American women curators American curators People from Princeton, New Jersey People from Washington, D.C. Bennington College alumni Georgetown Day School alumni 21st-century American women