Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College Names Victoria Sancho Lobis Director in ARTFORUM and Pomona News, January 2, 2020
Art historian and curator Victoria Sancho Lobis was appointed director of the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College in California. She comes to the institution from the Art Institute of Chicago, where she has held several roles, including interim chair of the department of prints and drawings, since she joined the museum in 2013. Previously, Lobis served for four years as the inaugural curator of the print collection and fine art galleries at the University of San Diego. She has also held fellowships at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the J. Paul Getty Museum.
Lobis will be responsible for leading the museum through the opening of its new building in the fall of 2020. Located where the campus meets Claremont Village and the city’s civic center, the new museum replaces the existing Pomona College Museum of Art, which will hold exhibitions until May 2020.Designed by Machado Silvetti Associates and Gensler, the new museum is made possible by a $15 million gift from Janet Inskeep Benton, a 1979 graduate of the college and longtime supporter of the arts. In addition to directorship, Lobis will also become a faculty member in the college’s art history department.
Commenting on her new role, Lobis said: “I am delighted by the prospect of developing the new museum’s program and collections in the context of Pomona’s remarkable academic community at the same time that the museum will serve as a cultural resource for Southern California. The design of the new museum articulates the values of accessibility and transparency; I look forward to realizing the promise it symbolizes as we build on the legacy of so many innovative projects realized by the Pomona College Museum of Art.” She will take up the post on January 6.