MoAD NAMES DENISE BRADLEY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR;

The Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) today announced that V. Denise Bradley, who played a leadership role in the largest exhibition of contemporary art from Africa ever shown in Europe, is MoAD’s newly appointed executive director. The museum is scheduled to open in downtown San Francisco in late November.

Bradley most recently served in London as AFRICA REMIX Liaison Officer at the South Bank Centre, where she developed an integrated marketing and programming model that generated large and diverse audiences. In that capacity she worked closely with numerous art galleries, the Museum Kunst Palast in Dusseldorf, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Mori Museum in Tokyo. Her career also includes developing global licensing strategy for key Warner Bros. consumer products. She also worked at Walt Disney International, and graduated from Stanford University and the Harvard Business School.

MoAD’s Grand Opening festivities begin with a free community preview on Saturday, November 26 and run through Friday, December 2. Visitors will begin their experience at MoAD’s Mission Street entrance with the spectacular “Girl from Ghana” photo-mosaic based on a photograph by Chester Higgins and created by Robert Silvers – a two-storey high dramatic image comprised of more than 2,100 photos donated by people from around the world. As of Dec. 3, MoAD is officially open to the public.

Located in Yerba Buena Gardens’ Cultural District, where both a new Contemporary Jewish Museum and a new Mexican Museum are planned – MoAD will occupy the first three floors of the new $200-million, five-star St. Regis Hotel and luxury condominium complex. Its space also will extend into the third floor of the San Francisco’s historic Williams’ Building.

MoAD just successfully completed Phase I of its “Heritage Campaign,” and has raised $5.4 million since August 2004. The remaining goal of the Campaign is $15 million over the next five years. The San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, which has been an important partner in developing and constructing the Museum, will continue to support the Museum’s operations over the next 12 years.

Major corporate contributors to date to MoAD include Catholic Healthcare West, Wells Fargo Bank, Ronald MacDonald House Charities, The Koret Foundation, Hewlett Packard, The Hearst Foundation, Carpenter & Company, and PG&E. Heritage Campaign Chair, Dr. Ernest Bates, chairman of American Shared Hospital Services, and Venture Capitalist Arthur Rock and his wife, Attorney Toni Rembe, are the largest individual donors.