Kristin Parker, the archivist and records manager at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, has been hired as the new collections manager and registrar for the Rose Art Museum, according to a campuswide e-mail sent last Friday by Provost Marty Krauss.Valerie Wright, the Rose's former collections manager and registrar, resigned last December after receiving an offer to serve as registrar of the Art Museum at West Virginia University.

In addition to serving as archivist and records manager at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Parker is also the museum's collections manager and manager of contemporary art and public programs, Krauss wrote in her e-mail.

Parker will join the staff of the Rose on March 22, Roy Dawes, the current director of operations at the Rose, wrote in an e-mail to the Justice.

Dawes said in an interview with the Justice that he was primarily in charge of the search process for a new collections manager and registrar. He added that he also consulted Krauss and Director of the Office of the Arts Scott Edmiston about the hire. Dawes said that about 50 candidates applied for the position and that Parker was selected after successful phone and in-person interviews.

"[Parker] has an amazing career at [the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum], and she has a specific interest in contemporary art, which is something that I was looking for, and she has a very clear understanding of kind of the challenges that we here at [the Rose Art Museum] face over the next couple of years and she had some excellent ideas about us moving forward," Dawes said.

"[Parker] is especially interested in the intersection of museums, libraries, and archives, and how museums can use new technologies to become more integrated with these institutions," Krauss wrote in her campuswide e-mail.

Parker could not be reached for comment by press time. A search committee is still in the process of reviewing applicants for the position of education director at the museum, which was vacated when Emily Mello resigned last June, Krauss wrote.

In addition to Dawes, who is the search committee's chair, the committee is comprised of Profs. Nancy Scott (FA), Andreas Teuber (PHIL), Sean Downey (FA), Dirck Roosevelt (ED) and Edmiston.

Dawes said that the committee has received approximately 15 résumés for the position and that search committee members will conduct interviews next week. He added that he hopes to fill the position within six to eight weeks.

Currently Dawes and Director of Financial Control, Budgeting and Analysis Karina Sheerin are the Rose's only two staff members. Dawes and Sheerin run the museum's operations with the help of Brian Friedberg (GRAD) and Nikki Rosenberg '10. Harvard student Paul Richardson M.A. '10, who served as registration and collections management intern at the Rose last summer, helps with the registrar work, Dawes said.