Fact Sheet

Ancient Treasures and the Dead Sea Scrolls

James S. Snyder

Anne and Jerome Fisher Director

James S. Snyder has served as the Anne and Jerome Fisher Director of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, since 1996. Mr. Snyder has overseen a variety of significant projects at the museum, one of the leading encyclopedic museums in the world, with the most extensive collections of biblical, Jewish, early Christian and Islamic archaeology and Jewish ceremonial art and ethnography.

Among the major benchmarks of his tenure are:

The 1997 celebration of the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls
The Museum's program of exhibitions in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the State of Israel in 1998, including the internationally-celebrated The Joy of Color: The Merzbacher Collection of Modern Art
The 1998 acquisition of the Arturo Schwarz Collection of Dada and Surrealist Art, comprising over 750 works and establishing the Israel Museum as a world center for the study of these seminal 20th century movements
Renewal of the Museum's European Art Galleries, including restoration of its eighteenth century French Rococo Rothschild Salon and installation of such newly acquired masterworks as The Destruction and Sack of the Temple of Jerusalem, 1625-26, by Nicolas Poussin; The Death of Adonis, 1614, by Peter Paul Rubens; and St. Peter in Prison, 1631, by Rembrandt van Rijn
The Museum's 2000-2001 millennial celebrations, including such major exhibitions as: Knights of the Holy Land: The Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem; Cradle of Christianity; Landscape of the Bible: Sacred Scenes in European Master Painting; Dreaming with Open Eyes: the Schwarz Collection of Dada and Surrealist Art; and Written in the Stars: Art and Symbolism of the Zodiac
Major exhibitions in 2002-3, including: China: One Hundred Treasures, a diplomatic collaboration with the People's Republic of China, which featured over 50 designated national treasures; Double Dress, the first major mid-career survey exhibition of the contemporary British Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare; and Revelation: Representations of Christ in Photography
Initiation of a major master planning effort to develop new entrance and visitor service facilities, together with renewal of galleries and other programmatic areas within the existing Museum envelope. Projects completed to date include: a $3 million renewal of the Museum's Youth Wing; a $2 million development of interim entrance and visitor service facilities; and the $1 million renewal of the Museum's Springer Auditorium. Current projects in progress include a $3 million restoration of the Museum's Shrine of the Book and an $11.5 million renewal of the Museum's Bronfman Archeology Wing

Prior to his appointment as Director of the Israel Museum, Mr. Snyder held a number of positions at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, culminating as Deputy Director from 1986 to 1996. During his tenure at MoMA, Mr. Snyder was involved in nearly every aspect of its programming and operations, overseeing its $60 million, 350,000 sq. ft. expansion completed in 1984, which served as one of the models in its time for successful mixed-use cultural development in America. He also had significant organizational responsibility for such major international loan exhibitions as Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective in 1980, and Henri Matisse: A Retrospective in 1992. Mr. Snyder is a Loeb Fellow of Harvard's Graduate School of Design, and in 1993, he co-authored the book Museum Design: Planning and Building for Art (Oxford University Press).

Born in 1952 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., Mr. Snyder is a graduate of Harvard University. He is married to Tina Davis, a graphic designer, and they have two children.