ROCKLAND, Maine — Lora Urbanelli, the executive director of the Farnsworth Art Museum since January 2006, has stepped down to assume the directorship of the Montclair Art Museum in Montclair, N.J.
Urbanelli will remain at the Farnsworth until the end of December, at which time chief curator Michael Komanecky will take over as the museum’s interim director.
For Urbanelli, the decision to move on was a tough one, but also one she felt she couldn’t turn down considering her background.
A Philadelphia native who grew up in the southern part of New Jersey, Urbanelli still has close family in the state. She is also a graduate of Rutgers University, which is the state university of New Jersey.
Montclair is about 1½ hours drive from the area in which her family lives.
“It was just one of those opportunities that was hard to resist,” Urbanelli said. “For me it was a real homecoming. It’s really wonderful — you think you follow the jobs that are good for you and are good advancement for you, [but] I never expected to work in my home region. I found it really hard to say no.”