Autry National Center

John Gray to Retire as President of the Autry National Center after More than a Decade of Leadership

John Gray

LOS ANGELES, March 9, 2010 – Tom Lee, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Autry National Center of the American West, announced today that John L. Gray will retire as President and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Gray will continue in his position until the end of 2010 or until a new President and CEO is named. Mr. Gray has led the Autry since its formation in 2004 and previously led one of its two predecessor institutions, the Autry Museum of Western Heritage, beginning in 1999. The Autry Board of Trustees has engaged Korn Ferry, an executive search firm, to assist with the leadership transition in the coming months.

"John Gray has transformed the Autry," Tom Lee stated. "Building on the legacy and extraordinary generosity of Jackie and Gene Autry, and the inclusive vision of the West by founding Director Joanne Hale, and for the last ten years under John’s leadership, we have built an exceptional and significant collection of Western and Native American materials, expanded our staff and Board of Trustees, and engaged the public with the stories of the American West. Through the merger with the Women of the West Museum in Denver in 2002, and the subsequent merger in 2003 between the Autry Museum of Western Heritage, and Los Angeles’s oldest museum, the Southwest Museum of the American Indian, the Autry National Center of the American West was created. With one united Board, multiple sites, a collection of over 450,000 objects, and a vision to embrace all stories of the diverse peoples of the West, the Autry is fully positioned to engage a broad audience of all ages in the study and understanding of the American West." "I have been extraordinarily privileged to have served the Autry during these years of reorganization, growth and renewal," John Gray stated. "History matters. We believe that through the use of our collections we can create exhibitions and programs at the Autry that help us not only to understand the lessons of the past, but also help us to build a more humane future. We experience the making of history everyday. Understanding the past gives us the knowledge to appreciate where we are today in order to help us make better choices for our shared future. Making history fun, and recognizing the interwoven myths and histories of the West, is the path that the Autry has chosen to tell our collective stories. The Western story is the great American story, and the Autry is at the forefront of public history and public engagement in these very challenging times. I am deeply grateful for this once in a lifetime opportunity to work with such wonderful and courageous Trustees, staff, and fascinating scholars, and to be able to explore the content of the Autry and the contradictory ideas about the American West."

Under Mr. Gray’s leadership, the Autry has developed plans to transform its Griffith Park campus into a premier cultural attraction for Los Angeles, where the integrated and inclusive story of the American West is told. A capital campaign launched under his direction has raised more than $140 million to date for this purpose. Mr. Gray has simultaneously led the effort to conserve the superb but endangered collections of the Autry National Center’s Southwest Museum and rehabilitate its long-neglected landmark building in Mt. Washington. The Autry has invested some $7.5 million toward this end since 2004 and has successfully secured the listing of the building on the National Register of Historic Places. Most significantly, Mr. Gray oversaw the merger in 2003 of the Autry Museum of Western Heritage with the Southwest Museum of the American Indian, creating the new Autry National Center of the American West, which also included the creation of the Institute for the Study of the American West. The newly formed Autry National Center houses one of the most significant collections of Western and Native American art and artifacts outside the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.

Mr. Gray also has set the direction for the Autry’s new and expanded schedule of exciting exhibitions and programs. These have included On Gold Mountain: the Chinese American Experience; Jewish Life in the American West; Yosemite: Art of an American Icon; Once Upon a Time in Italy…The Westerns of Sergio Leone; The Art of Native American Basketry: A Living Tradtion, the first comprehensive exhibition of the Southwest Museum’s superlative collection of baskets, and the upcoming Home Lands: How Women Made the West (opening April 16, 2010), the first exhibition to explore how women of many backgrounds and cultures have been at the heart of the West over the centuries. Programs include Native Voices at the Autry, developing Native American playwrights, actors and producers; a series of programs on violence and justice; Sizzling Summer Nights, the Autry’s annual salsa music and dance program, and Western History Workshops, bringing a public forum for noted Western scholars to the Autry. Mr. Gray also created a collection sharing agreement with the California Historical Society to preserve and present their historic painting and costume collection.

Before joining the Autry, Mr. Gray was the Associate Deputy Administrator for Capital Access with the Small Business Administration in Washington, DC. His prior business experience includes more than 23 years with First Interstate Bank, both in Denver and Los Angeles, where he was Executive Vice President and Manager, Real Estate Division. Mr. Gray’s commitments to nonprofit and community groups include Idyllwild Arts, LA, Inc. the Bella Lewitsky Dance Company in Los Angeles; Community Development Technologies, Historic Denver, Inc.; Mile High Transplant Bank, Denver; the Los Angeles Community Development Bank; Chairman for the California Community Investment Corporation; and the National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders.