Arts/Entertainment/Sports: ERIK H. NEIL
DIRECTOR AND CEO, CHRYSLER MUSEUM OF ART, NORFOLK
Published
Neil oversees the 123-employee Chrysler Museum of Art, which serves as a key cultural amenity of the Hampton Roads area and in 2021 drew $9.47 million in revenue.
Neil has worked in museums for more than 23 years, beginning with his seven-year role as director of the Newcomb Art Gallery of Tulane University. Then he moved to The Heckscher Museum of Art in New York, was CEO of EHN Art Services for a decade and served as director of Academy Art Museum in Maryland. He started at Chrysler in 2014.
In May, local philanthropist Joan Brock donated $34 million to the museum, including 40 works of art, which will support expansion of the Perry Glass Studio and endow Neil’s position and a second post. In July, the Chrysler and the city of Norfolk announced plans for the $3.2 million joint purchase of a building at Eastern Virginia Medical School as a museum expansion location.
Neil graduated from Princeton University and earned his master’s and doctoral degrees from Harvard. He serves on the boards of VisitNorfolk and the Association of Art Museum Directors.
