Salvador Salort-Pons

Salort-Pons was born and raised in Madrid, Spain. In 1993, Salort-Pons graduated from the Complutense University of Madrid with a master's degree in Geography and History with a specialization in the History of Art. While studying at the Complutense University of Madrid he was taught by the former director of the Museo del Prado, Alfonso Pérez Sánchez.

In 1998 Salort-Pons was a recipient of the Rome Prize and lived and studied at the Royal Spanish Academy in Rome for two years where he researched the presence of Spanish artists in Rome during the 17th century. In 2000, he became a member of the Royal College of Spain in Bologna where he completed his thesis about the trips Diego Velazquez made to Italy. His dissertation was published in 2002 and included over 50 new documents relating to the life and work of the Velazquez during his two trips to Italy (in 1629-30 and 1649-1651). Among Salort-Pons's discoveries was the correct dating of the Velazquez Portrait of Innocent X.[2]

In 2006, while working at the Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University, Salort-Pons received a Master of Business Administration from the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University.[2]

Salort-Pons's first curatorial job was as the exhibition curator at the Memmo Foundation/Palazzo Ruspoli in Rome. While at the Memmo Foundation, he co-curated "Il trionfo del colore: Collezione Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza" (Rome, 2002) as well as "Velázquez" (Rome, 2001), which was the first monographic exhibition on the painter ever organized in Italy.[3]

Until 2006, Salort-Pons served as the senior curator at the Meadows Museum of art on the campus of Southern Methodist University in University Park, Texas.[3] During that time, Salort-Pons helped Yale professors identify an early Velazquez work depicting the education of the Virgin Mary.[4][5]

In February 2008, the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) hired Salort-Pons as assistant curator of European Paintings.[6] Later promoted to be the associate curator in 2011, Salort Pons embarked on a number of exhibition projects including "Fakes, Forgeries and Mysteries" (2011).[7] As the head of the European Art department at the DIA, Salort-Pons was the in-house curator for the traveling Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus exhibition. In 2013, Salort-Pons was appointed Executive Director of Collections Strategies and Information, overseeing a number of key departments at the DIA, including Collections Management, Conservation, and Publications.[8]

As a curator, Salort-Pons did extensive research on the Italian and Spanish collections of the DIA. Under his guidance, the museum acquired a number of Spanish masterpieces by artists such as Francisco Zurbaran, Alonso Cano, Juan Valdes Leal, and Juan de Espinosa. In addition, he rediscovered a work by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo at Oakland University whose location had been lost to scholars for many years.[9]

Since becoming Director in the fall of 2015, Salort-Pons embarked on a number of projects to try to make the DIA more like a town square. He described the future of the DIA as a place where people can gather feel welcome, represented and included. Asserting that a museum is a place for the enjoyment of the arts but also a location where people can "drink coffee and chat."[10] Salort-Pons has repeatedly stated that his priorities directly involve increasing community interest and accessibility.[11][12][13]

Salort-Pons also started the "Directors Cut" programming at the DIA in early 2016. That series of talks was designed "for people to get to know him and for him to hear from metro Detroiters."[14]

Another major initiative Salort-Pons has focused on is diversifying DIA’s audiences, staff and board of directors. During Salort-Pons time as director, a number of non-traditional exhibitions and programs have been scheduled at the DIA and there has been an increased focus on collecting art by African American artists.[15]

In June 2016, Salort-Pons was conferred the Order of the Star of Italy at the rank of Officer by the Italian government for being a foreign national who aided the promotion and preservation of Italian national prestige abroad.[16]

In a public ceremony at the DIA on August 11, 2017, Salort-Pons was naturalized as an American citizen after 13 years of living in the United States. The ceremony occurred in front of over 100 patrons of the museum and was presided over by Federal Judge Avern Cohn.[17]

Since the end of 2017, Salort-Pons has led a project to redesign the public spaces around the DIA. Working with institutions neighboring the DIA institutions like the Detroit Historical Museum and Wayne State University, the project aims to make their shared area on Woodward Avenue into the main town square for Detroit. In announcing the Woodward plaza planning, Salort-Pons said feedback from the public and the museum's neighbors would play a vital role as the DIA looked at the best ways to connect the museum grounds to the surrounding community. The project has already received a number of grants from local institutions. The final goal of this project is to create a cohesive look and programming for the cultural district in midtown Detroit, with the DIA at the center of it.[18]

In March of 2020, Salort-Pons led the DIA during their successful bid for an early millage renewal in Oakland, Wayne, and Macomb counties. The 2020 vote saw support for the DIA millage rise to 76% in Oakland and Wayne county and to 62% in Macomb county, where the millage only narrowly passed in 2012 with 50.5% of the vote. When asked why the DIA planned on renewing the millage early, as opposed to in 2022 when it expired, Salort-Pons stated: "I think we earned the right to go back to the voters. I think we have touched the lives of so many in the tri-county area the last eight years." Salort-Pons credited the DIA’s increased community engagement work since 2012 as the driving cause for the improved millage result. In reacting to the victory, Salort-Pons stated: "The DIA millage renewal will ensure the museum can continue offering free field trips and free transportation to tens of thousands of students from local schools each year and free programming for local seniors".[19]

In a radio interview prior to the millage vote, Salort-Pons suggested that he believes with the support of the millage the DIA can reach an endowment of $600 million by the time the millage expires in 2032. This amount, in his view, would be enough for the continued financial stability of the organization.[20]

Salort-Pons has published extensively about the life and work of the Spanish master Diego Velazquez.