The Dallas Museum of Art announced today that Agustín Arteaga, director of the Museo Nacional de Arte in Mexico City, has been appointed director of the institution. He will start in his new position on September 1.

“Agustín is a forward-thinking and strategic director with an excellent track record of leading museums on a global level,” Catherine Marcus Rose, president of the Dallas Museum’s board of trustees, said. “His managerial acumen, curatorial expertise, and vision will be instrumental in enhancing the DMA’s international reputation and in strengthening our engagement with the ever-changing local and regional communities that we serve.”

Throughout Arteaga’s thirty-year career as a museum professional he served as the executive director and CEO of the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico for nine years; the founding director of the contemporary art museum Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires from 2000 to 2002; and the director and chief curator of Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City from 1994 to 1999. Arteaga was decorated as a Chevalier in the French Republic’s Order of Arts and Letters in 1998, and he received the Ohtli Award from the government of Mexico in 2013, which is the highest honor bestowed to Mexican citizens for support of Mexican culture abroad.

During his three-year tenure at the Museo de Nacional de Arte, Arteaga enhanced the institution’s exhibition programs, established new streams of revenue, and expanded the museum’s collection of over 7,000 works. He also secured individual and corporate sponsorships, which are rare in Mexico. Among the many exhibitions he oversaw at the institution were “Landscapes of the Mind: British Landscapes from the Tate Collection” (2015); “The Male Nude: Dimensions of Masculinity from 19th Century and Beyond” (2014); and “Yo, el Rey: La Monarquía Hispánica en el arte” (2015), which involved over 200 loans from forty institutions, including the Prado, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Royal House in Spain and drew a record number of visitors.