Biography, John O'Hern

Biography: John O'Hern, Curator
Re-presenting Representation

April 4, 2003

"Only connect!" John O'Hern cites E. M. Forster's words in Howard's End: "...Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted." Replace "prose" with "paint" and the same notion can be applied to O'Hern. For his passion is art, and he understands how deeply we need to be nourished by its life force.

O'Hern came to the Arnot Art Museum in 1989 as Director, added the responsibilities of Curator in 1994, and became Executive Director and Curator in 2003. Under his guidance, the museum has completed a $550,000 building campaign and completed work on the restoration of the original 1833 building and upgrades to the 1985 addition and 1890s carriage house. At the same time that he put the operations on a solid fiscal footing, he oversaw the process by which the museum earned accreditation from the American Association of Museums. Under his guidance and direction, the museum has won acclaim for innovative, multi-disciplinary education programs and outstanding exhibitions. The Re-presenting Representation exhibitions O'Hern has curated have been recognized as a model and featured in national and international media.

Prior to coming to the Arnot Art Museum, O'Hern was the first resident curator and manager of the Darwin D. Martin House, a Frank Lloyd Wright house, a national historic landmark owned by the State University of New York at Buffalo. He also held earlier posts at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo and Kenan Center in Lockwood, New York.

O'Hern completed the Master of Architecture program at SUNY Buffalo, earned a bachelor's degree in English from Stonehill College in North Easton, Massachusetts, and completed additional programs in photography in Denmark and architectural history and design in Arizona.