Dennis Kois
Dennis Kois is the current Executive Director of Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo, New York, effective April 22, 2019.Biography
He was raised and graduated high school from Whitefish Bay High School in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin near Milwaukee, and received a BA from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and an MA from New York University. He taught in the Graduate Program in Museum Studies at George Washington University from 2001 to 2006.
Kois co-designed the Galleries of Greek and Roman Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as co-designed museum exhibitions, including the Met's Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years. He was a protégé of Jeff Daly, the Chief Designer of the Metropolitan from 1979 to 2006. Additionally, Kois was the internal art director of the Met's website redesign, metmuseum.org, when it launched in 2000. The redesign won both "Best Website" from the American Alliance of Museums as well as "Best E-Commerce Site" from Advertising Age.
In 2001 Kois became the Chief Designer of the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Between 2001 and 2006 he designed a number of exhibitions, including the costume exhibition "Style and Status".
In 2006 Kois became the Executive Director of The Grace Museum, in Abilene, Texas. He was appointed to the Texas Commission on the Arts visual arts panel for a two-year term in 2007.
In June 2008, Kois became the Director of the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln, Massachusetts. In 2014, Kois became as the President and CEO of the Milwaukee Public Museum. He resigned abruptly following an internal investigation of an alleged affair between Kois and a staff member in 2018. He filed for divorce later that year.
