M+ appoints Marc Walton as Head, Conservation and Research

M+ today announced the appointment of Marc Walton to the position of Head, Conservation and Research. Reporting to the Deputy Director, Collection and Exhibition, Marc Walton has taken on a key leadership role and be an integral part of the Collection and Exhibition Department of the museum to develop an integrated approach to conservation for the institution. His appointment was effective on 4 February 2022.

In 2013, Marc Walton joined the Northwestern University / Art Institute of Chicago Center for Scientific Studies in the Arts as an inaugural Senior Scientist and as a Research Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the university. In January 2018, he was appointed as the co-Director of the Center.

Walton possesses a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Oxford in archaeological science and a Master of Arts in art history at New York University. He worked at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Getty Conservation Institute, and the Center for Scientific Studies in the Arts, where he has led numerous scientific research projects, investigating art objects with cultural heritage institutions representing disciplines from anthropology to contemporary art and geographical reach in both United States and internationally. He implemented multiple collaborative initiatives with research groups across Northwestern University. His research focuses on the manufacture and trade of objects, and on the development of imaging technologies in the field of conservation science.

Suhanya Raffel, Museum Director, M+, said, ‘Walton’s extensive and highly recognised conservation and research background is extremely valuable to our mission as Asia’s first global museum of contemporary visual culture. We are very pleased that Walton will play a vital role in developing overarching strategies in conservation to support our ambitious curatorial programmes and ensure the long-term preservation of the M+ Collections. I believe that the museum will benefit immensely from his conservation leadership and research experience.’

Marc Walton said, ‘I am truly honoured and excited to join the newly opened M+ which has the world’s foremost collections of twentieth- and twenty-first-century visual culture rooted in Asia while defined, developed, and examined from a global perspective. I look forward to working with the entire M+ team on developing conservation narratives and building a robust scientific research programme for the continued success of this promising new institution.’

Remarks

About M+
M+ is a museum dedicated to collecting, exhibiting, and interpreting visual art, design and architecture, moving image, and Hong Kong visual culture of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District, it is one of the largest museums of modern and contemporary visual culture in the world, with a bold ambition to establish ourselves as one of the world’s leading cultural institutions. M+ is a new kind of museum that reflects our unique time and place, a museum that builds on Hong Kong’s historic balance of the local and the international to define a distinctive and innovative voice for Asia’s twenty-first century.

About the West Kowloon Cultural District
The West Kowloon Cultural District is one of the largest and most ambitious cultural projects in the world. Its vision is to create a vibrant new cultural quarter for Hong Kong on forty hectares of reclaimed land located alongside Victoria Harbour. With a varied mix of theatres, performance spaces, and museums, the West Kowloon Cultural District will produce and host world-class exhibitions, performances, and cultural events, providing twenty-three hectares of public open space, including a two-kilometre waterfront promenade.