Bonnie Pitman

University of Texas at Dallas
Director Art/Brain Innovations, Center for BrainHealth 

Distinguished Scholar in Residence for the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History 

Bonnie Pitman joined The University of Texas at Dallas as Distinguished Scholar in Residence in 2012 to research and develop partnerships between UTD and cultural and health-related institutions. She is The Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History, and The Center for BrainHealth. The former Director of The Dallas Museum of Art, she is a national leader in the public engagement of art.

As Director of Art - Brain Innovations at the UT Center for BrainHealth, Pitman expands her research and teaching of the art of observation, meditation, and compassion. The Power of Observation initiative connects neurological research with the experience and process of seeing, looking and observing. Through her daily practice to "Do Something New", she invites the exploration and celebration of making an ordinary day extraordinary while dealing with chronic illness.

Pitman’s work with The Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History focuses on ways museums use their collections in developing close observation of works of art to enhance the diagnostic skills needed for medical practice. In 2016, she organized a national convening of Art Museums and Medical Schools at The Museum of Modern Art, NYC and launched a website with resources for the art and medical fields. She teaches a course titled “The Art of Examination” using the collections of the Dallas Museum of Art for UT Southwestern Medical School students. Published articles in The Journal of American Medicine, The New York Times, San Antonio Medicine, and Dallas Morning News, highlight her work. 

Pitman has published six books including Excellence and Equity: Education and Public Dimension of Museums, Ignite the Power of Art: Advancing Visitor Engagement in Museum, and Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection.

Pitman’s museum career spans 50 years of service in the museum, education and university fields.   She is a nationally recognized leader in the museum and arts community for her expertise and research in audience and civic engagement have transformed museums and their work with audiences.

Pitman was the Eugene McDermott Director of the Dallas Museum of Art and served as Deputy Director for 12 years. Under her leadership the Museum’s artistic excellence and engagement with the community dramatically increased. Her work focused on the development of the museum’s collections, presentations of major exhibitions, audience engagement and the expansion of the museums uses of new technologies. The DMA’s ArtsNetwork linked the museum’s collections and programs in new ways on the website and uses of social media. She led the development of the Center for Creative Connections and the research and implementation of the Framework for Engaging with Art that increased audience participation in the museum to over 800,000 visitors. Major acquisitions in all areas of the collection and raised over $190 million dollars for a capital and endowment campaign.

Pitman has served as a curator, educator, and administrator at the University of California’s Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archives, Seattle Art Museum, New Orleans Museum of Art, Winnipeg Art Gallery and the Bay Area Discovery Museum. She has consulted and lectured to over 450 institutions including art, history, and science museums.

Pitman has received numerous awards over her career and was recognized most recently with the Award for Distinguished Service to Museums by the American Association of Museums in 2011 recognizing lifetime achievement in the museum field. She has served on the boards of museum associations including the American Association of Museums (AAM), and as Chair of the AAM Accreditation Commission.  Pitman chaired the AAM’s National Task Force on Museum Education that prepared the landmark policy report Excellence and Equity: Education and the Public Dimension of Museums.

Publications include the Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection, 2012; Ignite the Power of Art: Advancing Visitor Engagement in Museums, 2010; New Forums: Art Museums & Communities.  In addition to numerous articles, she was the editor of Presence of Mind: Museums and the Spirit of Learning and Excellence and Equity: Education and the Public Dimension of Museums, a signature work that altered the perceived role of museums in society.

She is a member of the advisory board for the SMU National Center for Arts Research in the Meadows school for the Arts and Cox Business School and on the Board of the Baylor Health Care Foundation, and the Advisory Committee for Art at Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, TX.

Pitman received a Master of Arts degree from Tulane University and a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Sweet Briar College in Virginia.