After 12 years at Rollins, Ena Heller, who currently serves as the Bruce A. Beal Director of the Rollins Museum of Art (RMA), will take a position as Director of the Boca Raton Museum of Art. Her last day at Rollins will be November 30.
In an email sent to students on October 2, President Cornwell said, “Her absence will be deeply felt, but the profound and lasting impact she has made on our world-class museum and collection will continue to shape and inspire us for years to come.”
The RMA has undergone significant changes since Heller started working at Rollins in 2012. In the past 12 years, the museum has added over 1,300 pieces to its collection. The museum also receives a greater number of visitors than in the past, and programming has expanded both at the museum and at the Alfond Collection of Contemporary Art in The Alfond Inn.
Heller discussed how, throughout her time at Rollins, her team has worked hard to take advantage of the museum’s position on a college campus, incorporating it into classes. “We have tried really hard, and I think successfully, to position the museum as a resource and to look at art as an entry point even if you study different disciplines,” she said. Heller also discussed how she hopes students can use the museum as a resource outside of the classroom. “I think that art makes life better, and museums can be so many things to different people. They can be places of relaxation, or places you come to with a friend. They take you outside of your everyday life and everyday stressors,” she said.
Art has played an important part in Heller’s life since long before her time at Rollins. After receiving her PhD from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University, Heller proceeded to work as the founding executive director at the Museum of Biblical Art (MOBIA) in New York City. While in New York, she also gained teaching experience.
When describing her transition to Rollins, Heller described the difference between working at a public museum and a museum on a college campus, in particular how at Rollins she’s had the opportunity to apply her teaching experience, both through teaching classes herself and through establishing programming across classes of various majors. This aspect of working with students is one she also plans to apply to her new position. “I think the single most important lesson that I take with me that I can very directly apply in Boca is working with a younger audience,” she said. “I hope to be able to build programs that will engage a younger audience, and I hope also that we can build a closer partnership with Florida Atlantic University, which is just down the road from the museum.”
Heller described how she will miss working with the students at Rollins. “I think that being on a college campus is one of the best things about the Rollins Museum,” she said. “It’s always interesting to see the perspective that the younger generation brings which I think is enormously important in the planning of the future of our institutions.”
Though Heller will miss Rollins, she is ready to embrace her new position. She said, “I look forward to the new challenge and the different platform that I will have there. I’ve been here 12 years, and it was time for a change.”
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