The Center for Italian Modern Art (CIMA) Announces New Appointments

(New York, October 2020) — Today, The Center for Italian Modern Art (CIMA) announced two new senior appointments: Genevieve Martin will join as Managing Director, and Nicola Lucchi will join as Education & Programs Manager. 

Genevieve Martin, previously the center’s Institutional Relations Specialist, returns as Managing Director. An advocate for social justice and cross-disciplinary strategic partnerships, Genevieve most recently directed highly-experimental projects at The Art Students League of New York; including a public art project on mass incarceration in partnership with Art for Justice and the first ever exhibition on Cinque Gallery. 

She has a longstanding history of innovation and impact in the NYC arts non-profit community, and in leading successful multi-disciplinary approaches to audience engagement through tech and curatorial collaborations including the creation of the digital learning platform “e-telier” - a vital creative connection for thousands of New Yorkers during the pandemic 

“I’ve seen the numerous ways that creative resources and opportunities are systematically distributed unequally. This disparity has inspired me to work with nontraditional arts organizations who use art as social activations,“ says Martin. “While CIMA is devoted to the study and appreciation of Italian Modern Art, it’s format is deeply intercultural. By inviting international scholars to study works and then share that knowledge with the public directly, CIMA’s format subverts the canon of art history and fosters unlikely conversations. As a non-collecting research and exhibition center, CIMA has the agility to respond to current social events and address the connections between contemporary issues and cultural identity.” 

A native New Yorker, Genevieve did her MA work in Arts Administration at Baruch College and graduated from The Cooper Union with honors. She previously worked at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Morgan Library & Museum, The Moving Museum and Christie’s.

Already a CIMA Fellow during the 2015-2016 Giorgio Morandi season, Nicola Lucchi joins the team as Educations and Programs Manager, as well as Managing Editor of CIMA's online journal, Italian Modern Art. 

Nicola holds a PhD in Italian Studies from New York University; during his doctoral studies, he focused on Italian modernism and on the visual culture of the interwar era. An educator in colleges and high school, Nicola has published scholarly articles and book chapters on Italian Futurism, Bruno Munari, and Eugenio Montale. 

In recent years, Nicola spearheaded art-based pedagogic initiatives such as a student-curated exhibition, Futurismo! The Italian Avant-garde and its Cultural Impact (Queens College, Rosenthal Library, November 2019-January 2020), and curated the exhibition Propaganda: The Art of Political Indoctrination (NYU Casa Italiana, March-April 2020). Nicola is looking forward to contributing to CIMA's robust season of cultural events for our members, for the scholarly community, and for an ever-growing audience.