The Rollins Museum of Art announces the new-year departure of Dr. Ena Heller, its 12-year Bruce A. Beal Director, and congratulates her as she continues her career as the next Executive Director at the Boca Raton Museum of Art, starting February 3, 2025.

Ena arrived at Rollins in 2012 from the Museum of Biblical Art (MOBIA) in New York City, where she was founding Executive Director. Prior to MOBIA, she held positions in the Medieval and Education Departments at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and taught at the College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, MA) and Manhattanville College (Purchase, NY).

The decade-plus Ena spent at The Rollins Museum of Art was transformative for the institution. Under her tenure, more than 1,300 new acquisitions were added to the collection, the museum’s visitor numbers quadrupled, part of the contemporary collection started being shown at The Alfond Inn, the operating budget doubled, and the first endowment specifically for exhibitions was created.

After years of tireless and enthusiastic planning, architectural drawings for a new museum building were approved in 2023 by the Winter Park City Commission; the capital campaign still on track for completion in late 2024/early 2025.

It is with sadness, but much excitement for Ena, that The Rollins Museum of Art announces this news.

“It has been a privilege and a joy to lead the Rollins Museum of Art since 2012 and be part of its growth and transformation. I am proudest of having integrated the museum squarely into the Rollins education, centering institutional evolution around the teaching mission, while at the same time bringing it to its next level of institutional excellence. I have met, worked with and befriended extraordinary people, to whom I am grateful. Today, the museum is in a great place and ready to enter its new phase, which I know will be successful.” – Dr. Ena Heller, Bruce A. Beal Director, The Rollins Museum of Art

Ena Heller holds a Ph.D. in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and is a graduate of the Getty Museum Leadership Institute. She has presented papers at the conferences of the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries, Society of Architectural Historians, College Art Association, at the Institute of Fine Arts, and at numerous museums and universities throughout the country.

Her publications include the edited volumes Perspectives on Medieval Art: Learning through Looking (2009) and Reluctant Partners: Art and Religion in Dialogue (2004) and contributions to History of Jewish Architecture (2019); From the Margins I & II: Women of the Hebrew Bible and their Afterlives/Women of the New Testament and their Afterlives (both in 2009); and Women’s Space: Patronage, Place, and Gender in the Medieval Church (2005).

Photo Credit: The Rollings Museum of Art

Date Posted: October 2, 2024