The University of Maine Museum of Art has hired George Kinghorn as its new director.

Kinghorn, who most recently served as deputy director and chief curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville in Florida, begins his new post June 9.

"The museum in downtown Bangor is a beautifully designed, intimate space. I'm very excited about the opportunity there," Kinghorn said by phone from Florida. "I am interested in this position largely because of my background is education. I taught visual arts at the university level, and the opportunity to once again be associated with a university and a campus and able to interact with students is particularly appealing."

Kinghorn, 40, said he was looking forward to living in a northern climate. Although he was born in Florida, he has lived in Michigan and in Minnesota.

"I'm an outdoorsy type person. The personal opportunity of being able to go out in nature and do a little kayaking and canoeing is going to be a nice change from the Florida environment, where it is so ridiculously hot," he said.

Kinghorn was instrumental in opening MOCA Jacksonville's six-floor, 60,000-square-foot facility. He also led a subsequent renovation of the museum's galleries.

During his nine-year tenure, MOCA Jacksonville opened a children's interactive center, ArtExplorium Loft, and Café Nola, an upscale bistro. In addition, he added significant works to the permanent collection, implemented a comprehensive strategic plan and created a collections management master plan, which redefined the scope of the collection.

Laurie Hicks, the interim director of the University of Maine Museum of Art and an art professor at UMaine, praised Kinghorn's experience, enthusiasm and vision.

"The museum is a vital, alive place," Hicks said in a statement. "What George can bring to it is the ability to make that vitality and possibility a reality. He has a great track record of having a vision and making it happen, and that was important to us."

Kinghorn said his vision for the museum includes community outreach and collaborations with faculty and students, and he hopes to increase the museum's visibility statewide.

He believes the museum can play a larger role in Bangor's evolution as a cultural destination, and that with his expertise in contemporary art, the museum can become a central gathering spot for Maine's contemporary art scene.

Kinghorn's arrival in Maine coincides with the fifth anniversary of the museum's move to downtown Bangor.

While the Bangor museum is much smaller than MOCA Jacksonville, its size lends itself to an intimate experience for visitors. "It has great flexibility. We can do three to four very different types of exhibitions simultaneously to really provide things that appeal to the tastes of a wide audience," he said.

Kinghorn succeeds longtime director Wally Mason, who led the museum's move off campus. During his time at UMaine from 1996 to late 2007, Mason significantly added to the permanent collection of works on paper, building on the tradition set by the museum's founder, Vincent Hartgen.

"Wally Mason really built the foundation for this museum," Hicks said. "Now it's time for the museum to set a path for itself and work to become the museum it has the potential to be, to really try to do things that make it stand out even more than it already does."

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