Michael Rush will take over as the director of the Rose Art Museum next month, succeeding Joseph Ketner who resigned last June to become the chief curator at the Milwaukee Art Museum.Rush comes to Brandeis after serving as the chief director and curator at the Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art for the last four years. He will assume the role from Raphaela Platow, the Rose's curator who has served as the museum's acting director since Ketner's departure.

Rush said he hopes to increase the Rose's visibility on a national and international level.

"A director is a public voice of an institution," he said. "I enjoy being someone who can bring the vision of the museum to the world."

Rush said he plans to expand the museum's artistic scope to include less conventional exhibits that utilizes new technologies such as audio presentations that could be downloaded to an iPod.

Office of the Arts Director Scott Edmiston praised Rush's qualifications in an e-mail to the Justice, calling him a "nationally respected visionary in the field of contemporary art."

"I am especially thrilled with his appointment because of his long-term commitment to new and interdisciplinary art forms-from video art to experimental theatre and performance art," Edmiston wrote.

Prior to his work at Palm Beach, Rush earned doctorates in theology and psychology at Harvard. A former Jesuit priest, he has served as a writer and critic for The New York Times and Art in America magazine, and is the host of an Internet radio program.

Rush is also the author of several books, including his most recent endeavor, New Media in Art, which explores the ways in which new technologies have changed the world of art production.

Rush founded the New Haven Artists' Theater in Connecticut and Seated Man in New York, two groups dedicated to presenting experimental art works in theater and multimedia.

Provost Marty Krauss said she believes Rush is "a respected visionary and a mover and shaker in the art world."

Rush was chosen through a selection committee empanelled by Krauss that interviewed five applicants. Two of those were invited to speak at the Rose earlier this fall. Krauss made a final decision after the committee submitted its recommendations.

"[Rush] always struck me as a very thoughtful, intelligent, and honest person," Platow said. "I think he will bring new ideas to the museum, new ideas to look at things.