Jaime Baird is Director of Administration at the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University. As the first Administrative Director for the ICA, Baird will work closely with Director Lisa Freiman to build the ICA’s programs and staff, ensure the ICA’s long-term financial stability, expand its creative capacity, and enhance the Institution’s overall reputation locally, nationally, and internationally. Baird will play an instrumental role in preparing for the ICA’s opening in 2017, and once completed, will provide oversight to ensure effective operations across all departments, directing the ICA’s administrative, financial, development, and communications activities.

Baird brings more than nine years of experience working with contemporary art in a higher education setting. Prior to joining the ICA, Baird was Assistant Director of Administration and Development at the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College (CCS Bard). Founded in 1990 as an exhibition and research center for the study of late-20th-century and contemporary art and culture, CCS Bard is renowned as one of New York’s premiere institutions dedicated to experimental approaches to the presentation of contemporary art. In 2006, Baird helped build and launch the 25,000-square-foot Hessel Museum of Art, and worked with CCS Bard leadership and staff to introduce expanded exhibition and residency programs that have garnered popular and critical acclaim worldwide. Baird also oversaw CCS Bard’s publications department, and has worked as managing editor for a wide range of arts publications and catalogues, including Rachel Harrison: Consider the Lobster and Other Essays (CCS Bard, 2009); From 199A – 199B: Liam Gillick (CCS Bard, 2010), The Human Snapshot and The Flood of Rights (both CCS Bard/LUMA/Sternberg Press, 2013 and upcoming 2015); and Realism, Materialism, Art (CCS Bard, Sternberg, 2015), among others.

Originally from Georgia, Baird holds a B.A. in Art History from the University of Georgia, and an M.A. in African Art History from the University of Florida.