Portrait of a woman.
Courtney J. Martin.
Mara Lavitt.

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation in New York announced Thursday that it has appointed Courtney J. Martin as its new Executive Director.

Martin, who currently serves as the Paul Mellon Director of the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, succeeds Kathy Halbreich, who departed from the position last January after six years.

“The opportunity to lead the foundation that [Rauschenberg] envisioned is unparalleled,” said Martin in a statement, describing Rauschenberg, who established the foundation in 1990, as “a visionary,” whose direction she aims to draw from. Martin expressed an eagerness to expand the entity’s philanthropic pursuits and to work with living artists, the beneficiaries of the organization’s residency program, which was implemented in 2012.

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At the Yale Center for British Art, where she has worked for the last five years, Martin orchestrated the exhibition center’s reopening after the pandemic and oversaw exhibitions on Bridget Riley, Marc Quinn, and Njideka Akunyili Crosby.

At the Rauschenberg Foundation, Martin will be oversee all affairs related to the postwar artist’s foundation, a role that she is familiar with. Before her time at the Connecticut Ivy, Martin was chief curator and deputy director at the Dia Art Foundation in New York, leaving the post in 2019 after two years, having contributed to updating its Minimalist focused-program to include contemporary artists.

Under Halbreich’s direction, Michael Straus, the foundation’s Board Chair, said that after weathering the adverse effects of the pandemic, the organization has emerged with a more “cohesive” direction. Christopher Rauschenberg, the Foundation’s president, said Martin’s extensive experience at major institutions will be an asset going forward, saying “[She] brings a valuable new perspective to the Foundation.”