The Owensboro Museum of Fine Art Board of Directors appointed Jason Edward Hayden as the museum’s director on Tuesday. Hayden has served as interim director since the recent death of the museum’s founding director, Mary Bryan Hood.
Hayden, a native of Owensboro, earned a bachelor of arts degree in graphic design from Brescia College in 1991. Upon graduation, he was hired by the museum as preparator. That same year he was promoted to graphic designer and photographer, a position he held until 1996.
Hayden left the museum in 1996 to pursue a career as a freelance designer until 1999 when he returned as the museum’s registrar. In 2000, he left the museum to work as a designer for Greenwell-Chisholm Printing Company. He returned to the museum for the last time in 2002 as the museum’s director of marketing and operations, a position he held until his promotion to assistant director and development officer in 2019.
During his tenure at the museum, he assisted with numerous fundraising efforts, including a 1993 capital campaign which resulted in an expansion, and the Phoenix Rising Campaign, designed to help the museum recover from a fire in 2003. As assistant director and development officer, Hayden helped organize and implement the museum’s recent $2.3 million dollar capital Ccmpaign, designed to refurbish its historically important facility, establish an operations endowment, and provide sustaining support.
The Owensboro Museum of Fine Art, founded in 1977, is the second-largest fine art museum in Kentucky and features three wings, two of which are on the National Register of Historic Sites.
OMFA is located at 9th and Frederica streets and is open Tuesday through Friday from 12-5 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 1-4 p.m. Admission is free.
