The Miami Art Museum announced the appointment of Terence Riley, former chief curator of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, as its new director.

On Tuesday Jan 3, MAM's board of trustees unanimously approved Riley's hiring. Riley headed New York's MOMA for 14 years and will be officially resigning as of March to replace Suzanne Delehanty, the former MAM curator.

Delehanty stepped down on Dec. 31 after almost 11 years. Delehanty was MAM first and only curator since its inception almost 12 years ago.

Terence Riley begins at the Miami Art Museum on March 15 and heads the museum as undergoes its biggest transformation to date.

In 2004, Miami-Dade voters approved a $275 million plan in which part of the funds will go toward expanding the Miami Art Museum by building a new museum at Bicentennial Park.

Riley will head the project and be responsible for the hiring of an architect to design the new, $175 million museum, which will be built on 29 acres and will be a proposed 125,000-square-foot facility.

As an art enthusiast, I feel that the hiring of Terence Riley and the plans to construct a new museum are very exciting and hopefully the begging of a significant cultural expansion in Miami.