Ellen Owens, Director of the Castellani Art Museum at Niagara University, has been named Director of the American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM) in Baltimore.
AVAM’s board announced on Friday that Owens, a native of Middleburg, Pennsylvania, will begin her new job on June 23, following a 10-month national search and unanimous approval by its directors.
Since September of 2023, the museum has been led on an interim basis by Donna Katrinic, director of finance and operations, and Valerie Williams, director of development and marketing, with co-founder Rebecca Hoffberger as the artistic director.
Jenenne Whitfield was AVAM’s director from September 2022 to September 2023. Hoffberger, who co-founded the museum with her former husband, the late LeRoy Hoffberger, was the museum’s first director from its opening in 1995 until she stepped down in the spring of 2022.
“On behalf of the entire Board of Directors, we are thrilled to have attracted an arts leader of Ellen Owens’ caliber to lead AVAM forward at this important time for the museum and our nation,” said AVAM Board Chair Christopher Goelet, in a statement.
“Ellen has a keen understanding and appreciation of what AVAM has always been about and the importance of its mission at this time in our nation’s history—to give voice to the diversity of human experience and to inspire our individual and collective commitment to advancing social justice,” Goelet said. “We have full confidence that she will define a new era of relevance, reach and support for AVAM, as well as an expanded commitment to educational programming.”
“It’s a tremendous honor to be given this opportunity to lead the nation’s museum for self-taught intuitive artists, a place I have often visited and long admired,” Owens said in a statement.
“I have always been committed to making art museums accessible to the widest possible audience. Visionary art, as one of the purest forms of expression, produces such an immediate, powerful reaction among viewers and is evidence of our intense human desire to create, which many repress, yet some are able to channel to fantastical results,” she said. “More than ever, we need this kind of artistic expression to reflect, grow, and heal, and ultimately lead us to a stronger, more just, more empathetic society.”
Located at 800 Key Highway, AVAM defines visionary art as works “produced by self-taught individuals, usually without formal training,” which arise from “an innate personal vision that revels foremost in the creative act itself.”
In 1992, the U. S. Congress designed AVAM as a “national repository and educational center for visionary art.” Since it opened, the museum has consistently been ranked by leading news, travel and trade publications as one of the most popular destinations in Baltimore and Maryland.
CNN declared that AVAM is “one of the most fantastic museums anywhere in America.” In both 2023 and 2024 and Baltimore Sun Readers voted AVAM #1 in the categories of Museum, Tourist Attraction, Gallery, and Wedding Venue. In 2024, Baltimore Magazine readers voted AVAM as Best Art Museum and Best Exhibition (for “If You Build It They Will Come”).
Niagara University is a private Catholic university in upstate New York, near Niagara Falls. During her tenure at Castellani Art Museum (CAM), which she joined in 2021, Owens spearheaded a comprehensive strategic planning process, rebuilding staff and programs to redefine the museum’s mission and create new vision and values statements that increased the number of visitors by 52 percent. In three years, she was responsible for raising contributed income by 192 percent and achieving a 100 percent increase in membership.
For seven years prior to joining CAM, Owens served on the executive leadership team of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the largest university museum in the U.S. In this role, Owens assisted in raising more than $4.5 million for her department through grants, sponsorships, and other fundraising initiatives, as well as fostering new collaborations and partnerships.
While at the University of Pennsylvania museum, Owens and her team launched Unpacking the Past, a free multistage education program that serves more than 5,000 public middle school students annually, while still hosting an additional 50,000 K-12 students each year. Owens spearheaded the groundbreaking Global Guides program, which hires local immigrants and refugees to lead gallery tours that relate personal stories to history from their countries of origin.
From 2009 to 2014, Owens served as executive director of Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens (PMG), a visionary art gallery and museum where she increased the operating budget from $160,000 to nearly $1 million in four years. There, she established PMG as a must-see destination in Philadelphia, creating its first strategic plan and popular programs that are still flourishing today.
A senior lecturer in museum studies at Niagara University and formerly program coordinator and lectures in the master’s museum education program at University of the Arts, Owens has held several positions at art-, history-, and science-based institutions in the Philadelphia area, including as manager of education at the American Philosophical Society Museum, focused on the intersections of history, art, and science. She began her career at Creative Oasis Arts Studio as assistant manager of the gallery and coordinator and instructor of its arts camps. She paints and makes fiber art.
Owens is a graduate of Penn State University, where she completed dual majors in painting and drawing, and art education, obtaining both bachelor of arts and bachelor of fine arts degrees. She obtained her masters degree in Museum Education from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. She graduated from two leadership programs, the Getty Leadership Institute and the Nonprofit Executive Leadership Institute at Bryn Mawr College. She has held nonprofit trustee roles with The Print Center; The Museum Council of Greater Philadelphia; the Arts and Business Council of Philadelphia, Citizens for the Arts in Pennsylvania, and others.
Owens said she is eager to start her new role.
“AVAM rewrites the experience of art museums, using humor, humility, play, and rich personal stories to convey meaningful narratives about life and diverse experiences,” she said. “I am so looking forward to becoming a Baltimorean and leveraging the solid foundation that has been established these past three decades to build an even stronger future for this iconic and essential institution of Maryland and our nation.”
