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Hunter elevates Virginia Anne Sharber from interim to permanent executive director

Staff Photo by Angela Lewis FosterThe Hunter American Museum of Art is visible from the Tennessee River.
Staff Photo by Angela Lewis FosterThe Hunter American Museum of Art is visible from the Tennessee River. Staff Photo by Angela Lewis FosterThe Hunter American Museum of Art is visible from the Tennessee River.

By Barry Courter 3 min read

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photo Virginia Anne Sharber is the new executive director of the Hunter Museum of American Art, the first woman to hold that position.
photo Bill Crowell, bottom left, flies his remote-controlled aircraft over the Hunter Museum of American Art to capture GoPro footage of a friend’s wedding.
photo The Hunter Museum will offer Club Hunter membership (think air-conditioning and indoor plumbing) during the Riverbend Festival.

For the last five months, Virginia Anne Sharber has been interim executive director of The Hunter Museum of American Art. The “interim” was dropped from the title Thursday after she was offered the position by the board of trustees following a nationwide search.

Sharber said it was not a position she pursued or one she would have imagined taking six months ago.

“Absolutely not. I’ve been involved in different arts organizations and other organizations over the years, but I was not looking,” she said. “I said, ‘I would be willing to help out,’ and the more and more I was here, the more I fell in love with the place. It’s been a fun five months, so why quit now?”

Sharber has been involved with several local arts organizations over the years, including serving as chairwoman of the ArtsBuild (then Allied Arts) board, the Holmberg Arts Leadership Institute and the Cultural Cabinet of ArtsBuild (which oversaw the Imagine Chattanooga 2020 cultural planning process).