Beth Stryker—a multihyphenate designer and curator—has been named the MAK Center for Art and Architecture’s next director. Stryker’s hire follows the tenure of Jia Yi Gu, who announced she would be stepping down from the position earlier this year after four years on the job.
In Los Angeles, the MAK Center oversees three historic properties: the Schindler House, Mackey Apartments, and Fitzpatrick-Leland House. These locations host various exhibitions and residency programs.
According to a post shared on the MAK Center’s Instagram, Stryker was selected “from a field of international candidates.” She comes from a strong professional background “in realizing interdisciplinary and intercultural projects” that positions her to excel in the role, which involves fundraising and financial management, overseeing the residency program, and supervising staff and facilities workers.
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Stryker previously worked with a long list of organizations and institutions over the last two decades in leadership and curatorial capacities. This list includes CLUSTER (Cairo Laboratory for Urban Studies, Training and Environmental Research), a platform she helped found; as well as Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Center for Architecture in New York; and nonprofit ArteEast. In California, Stryker led Art Share L.A.
“The MAK branch in Los Angeles is a special—a visionary, experimental—location on the interface between art and architecture with an emphasis on cross-border projects,” Lilli Hollein, general director of MAK, shared in a statement on Stryker’s appointment. “With her wide-ranging expertise in architecture and art, her cross-genre, cross-cultural approach, and her many years of experience in interdisciplinary discourse, Beth Stryker is the ideal person to further the MAK Center’s avant-garde program and the internationally renowned MAK Center Artists and Architects-in-Residence Scholarship Program.”
