The Westerly Museum of American Impressionism, which is currently under construction, has hired Catherine Shotick as the museum’s inaugural director after a nationwide search.

WMAI expects to open in the fall of 2024 on Watch Hill Road.

The new art museum is established by philanthropists and art collectors Thomas P. and Cynthia D. Sculco, who are Westerly natives with a home in town.

Shotick has more than 12 years of experience in various aspects of museum operations, including collections management, exhibition creation, programming, publications, and community partnerships. At the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, she was a curator with a focus on American art. At the Richard H. Driehaus Museum, a historic house museum in downtown Chicago, she was the head of the curatorial department.

WMAI will be dedicated to the research and exhibition of American Impressionism. Its core permanent collection will be comprised of over 150 examples of such works from the 1880s to 1920 that the Sculcos have collected over 40 years, many of them paintings by New England and East Coast artists.