Museum executive and preservationist to lead national nonprofit organization

James Brayton Hall will become President and Chief Executive Officer of the Garden Conservancy on June 1, 2017, Benjamin F. Lenhardt, Jr., Chairman of the Board, announced today.

For the last four years, Mr. Hall has been deputy director of the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he was involved in all aspects of museum operations. From 2010 to 2013, he was executive director of the Providence Preservation Society in Rhode Island, overseeing all programming, fundraising, and relations with the board, donors, and community. From 2006 to 2010, Mr. Hall served as assistant director of the Museum of Art at the Rhode Island School of Design, after holding various other management and curatorial positions at the school since 1985.

“We enthusiastically welcome James Hall to the Garden Conservancy,” Mr. Lenhardt said. “Our board of directors is confident that James’s professional experience and personal interests are an outstanding complement to our mission of saving and sharing outstanding American gardens for the education and inspiration of the public. A museum executive and former executive director of a preservation society, James brings management skills, creativity, energy, an impressive resume, and a lifelong personal interest in landscape architecture, art, and preservation. We have great confidence in his ability to lead our organization forward.”

Mr. Hall said, “I’m delighted to join the Garden Conservancy and to build on its twenty-seven years of accomplishments. It’s an exciting opportunity to further nurture and expand its garden preservation, Open Days, and education programs across the country. I look forward to working with the Garden Conservancy’s board, staff, Fellows, members, and volunteers, as well as with partner gardens and organizations in communities across the country.”

Mr. Hall has a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Virginia and a master’s in landscape architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design. In addition, he was awarded a Royal Oak Scholarship to attend the Attingham Trust Summer School in Architectural and Landscape History in London, and, separately, participated in the Victorian Society’s summer program in architectural history, also in London. Mr. Hall has spoken widely on architectural and landscape design and has been a guest lecturer at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Mr. Hall plans to relocate to the Hudson Valley and will assume the role of President and Chief Executive Officer on June 1, 2017.

About the Garden Conservancy
Since its founding in 1989 by renowned plantsman Frank Cabot, the Garden Conservancy has done more than any other national institution to save and share outstanding American gardens for the education and inspiration of the public. Many of the gardens that the Garden Conservancy has helped preserve are National Historic Landmarks; seventeen are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1995, the Garden Conservancy launched Open Days, the only national garden-visiting program. More than 300 private gardens now open their gates to thousands of visitors every year through Open Days. The Conservancy also presents educational lectures and symposia to provide its members and the public a source of contemporary ideas relevant to gardening, design, and preservation.

Major support for the Conservancy comes from its more than 4,000 members, including more than 300 patrons in the Conservancy’s Society of Fellows. In 2012, the Garden Conservancy received the prestigious Historic Preservation Medal from the Garden Club of America “in recognition of outstanding work in the field of preservation.” In 2009, the Conservancy received the Organizational Excellence Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

For more information, please visit www.gardenconservancy.org.

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