A native of Hawaii, O'Harrow has been executive director of the Figge since 2007. During his tenure, the Figge has been re-accredited by the American Association of Museums and has seen increases in both fund-raising and attendance, setting an all-time record for annual visitors and program participants in 2009-10 of over 69,000, including more than 20,000 students from pre-school to college age.
O'Harrow helped the UIMA house, preserve and display its collection at the Figge following the flood of 2008 that devastated the UI arts campus.
Prior to arriving in Iowa, O'Harrow was an official fellow and development director of St. Catharine's College in the University of Cambridge for five years, where he helped raise $34 million. He spent three years as a senior executive in a U.S.-based investment banking firm in London, responsible for strategic growth in Europe. He also worked for four years as chief operating officer of an international financial consulting and software firm in London.
O'Harrow earned his doctorate in art history from the University of Cambridge in 1997 and a undergraduate degree with honors in art history from Harvard in 1990. He is the recipient of a number of academic awards, including a British Academy postgraduate studentship
I am very happy and very optimistic about this! The University of Iowa has one of the most amazing collections of Art in the Midwest and no one knew it was there before the flood and I'm hoping O'Harrow comes out of the gate swinging for the fences and working every source of money he can get his hands on to get a world class facility for this world class collection of art. (If he can get $50 million and some land downtown we'll be rolling!)
The Art Museum has been down for the count, worrying about where the art's going to go and what to do about it for far too long. It's time to get off the mat and go, go, go and hopefully O'Harrow can and will do that! Let's bring the UIMA back to life and back to campus!
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