Bob Workman, the first to head the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, is returning to the Ulrich Museum of Art at Wichita State University, where he began his career in 1978.
Workman, now the director of the Flint Hills Discovery Center in Manhattan, Kan., will stay on with the city-run center through mid-Januaryto help find his replacement. He’ll assume his new post at the Ulrich on Jan. 20.
The Ulrich Museum of Art, one of only 12 accredited museums in Kansas, was founded in 1974. The museum is named for Edwin A. Ulrich, a Hyde Park, N.Y .,businessman who donated his collection of more than 300 works by the early 20thcentury painter Frederick Judd Waugh and set up an endowment to support the new institution, according to information on the Ulrich’s website.
Workman’s decision to return to his hometown of Wichita is also said to be a personal one, as he and his wife, Liz, have family who are ill. The couple moved to Bentonville in 2005 when Workman was hired as executive director at Crystal Bridges.
He left the position well before its opening a year ago.
Before working at Crystal Bridges, Workman was associate director of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 8 on 11/27/2012