David Brenneman is an experienced art museum curator and director with over 30 years of museum leadership experience. In 1995 David became a curator at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, beginning a 20-year tenure there. He rose to become the High Museum’s Director of Collections and Exhibitions, where he guided all six of the High’s curatorial departments
During his time at the High, he worked closely with a number of talented curators to build the museum’s exhibition and art acquisition program in the field of contemporary art. He facilitated the acquisition of major works of Contemporary art by such artists as Julie Mehretu, Anish Kapoor, and Alex Katz; he worked with the High’s curators to advance commission projects with such artists as Thomas Struth and Martin Parr; initiated a focus on collecting works on paper by Atlanta-based artists; and worked with successive curators of decorative art and design to establish a contemporary design program.
In 2015, he left Atlanta to become the Director of the Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University, where he created Indiana University’s first curator of contemporary art position. David supervised the renovation of the museum’s signature I M Pei building and found ways for their substantial collection of more than 45,000 works of art to become more accessible and engaging for their 40,000+ students, faculty, and staff. The creation of the contemporary curator position and the museum’s renovation resulted in a new time-based media space and the acquisition of numerous works by such artists as Leonardo Drew, Alex Katz, Gerhard Richter, Shahzia Sikander, Anila Agha, MacArthur Binion, Jim Dine, Sam Levi Jones, and Kara Walker, just to name a few.
He now serves as director and CEO of the Telfair Museums of Art in Savannah, Georiga, where he is guiding the museum’s exhibition and art acquisitions program. In spring and summer of 2026, the Telfair will host an exhibition titled “Off the Coast of Paradise: Ossabaw Island, Georgia, 1961-now,” which is curated by the Telfair’s curator of contemporary art, Erin Dunn, and guest curator, Beryl Gilothwest. The exhibition examines the influential artist’s residency program on this pristine coastal barrier island and will include a major commission by the artist Allison Janae Hamilton.
