About: Curatorial Staff: Charles Desmarais

Charles Desmarais
Deputy Director for Art

Charles Desmarais joined the Brooklyn Museum staff in 2005 as Deputy Director for Art, overseeing eleven curatorial units, the Education Division, Libraries and Archives, Conservation, Collections, Exhibitions Management, and Digital Collections and Services. From 1995 until January 2004, Mr. Desmarais served as Director for the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, where he was responsible for a successful public and programmatic transformation of the CAC, particularly through the completion of its new building designed by architect Zaha Hadid. Prior to joining the CAC, Desmarais served as Director of the Laguna Art Museum in Laguna Beach, California. In the 1980s, he directed the California Museum of Photography at the University of California, Riverside. A native of the Bronx, Charles Desmarais earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from the State University of New York, Buffalo, and was one of the first participants in the Museum Management Institute program of the J. Paul Getty Trust. He has written more than 200 articles and books and was awarded an Art Critics Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts in 1979. In addition to his experience as a museum administrator, Desmarais has organized more than fifty exhibitions of the work of various artists, photographers, and architects.