Anthony Bannon

Anthony Bannon (born December 6, 1943) is an arts administrator in Western New York. He served as the director of the George Eastman Museum from 1996 to 2012 as well as the executive director of the Burchfield Penney Art Center at Buffalo State College. During his tenure at the George Eastman Museum, Bannon launched programs in photo and film preservation, acquired the Technicolor and Merchant Ivory Productions archives, and established an online presence for the museum's classic images.

Bannon has lectured at museums, colleges, and festivals worldwide. He currently serves as chairman of the Lucie Awards/International Photography Awards and was awarded the Golden Career Award in 2007 by the FOTOfusion Festival of Photography & Digital Imaging for his “far-reaching leadership and scholarship in the cultural community.”

Education
Bannon studied biology at St. Bonaventure University, earning a bachelor's degree in 1964. He earned a master's degree in English, with a concentration in criticism and film in the Center for Media Study, from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1976. Bannon earned his Ph.D. in 1994 from the State University of New York at Buffalo from the English Department, with a concentration in Culture Studies. His thesis was titled Robert Longo: A Practice of Art.

Director of the George Eastman Museum
Bannon Served as Director of the George Eastman Museum from 1996 to 2012. He has thus far been the longest-standing director of the museum.

His tenure as director saw some of the most popular exhibitions in the museums history. He also initiated the digitisation of the collection.

Early career
Bannon began his career as a journalist, working from 1966 to 1985 for The Buffalo News, a metropolitan daily with a peak circulation of more than 400,000. He initially served as a theater and dance critic, and was a critic fellow at the Eugene O'Neill Memorial Theater Foundation and the American Dance Congress in 1969. Bannon later served as the newspaper's film, video, and architecture critic, finally concentrating on the fine and camera arts from 1977 through 1985. When a Sunday edition was initiated in 1977, he was appointed its art section editor. Reflecting Buffalo’s long-standing tradition of civic commitment to culture, the Buffalo News encouraged Bannon to teach, to make films, to serve as a dramaturg for theater productions, and to organize exhibitions in the visual arts.

For the next decade, from 1985 to 1996, Bannon was with the State University of New York College at Buffalo. He served as director of the Burchfield-Penney Art Center, which is dedicated to the work and archives of Charles Burchfield (1893–1967), an American watercolorist. The center holds the largest collection of Burchfield works, journals and ephemera. It also serves as a regional museum, collecting art, craft and design by artists who have lived in Western New York State, including the largest collection of Roycroft objects from the Arts and Crafts Movement. The center is the repository of the Charles Rand Penney Collections. As a presenting organization, the Burchfield-Penney programs in all the visual arts, including architecture, design, film, video, craft and folk art, as well as literary arts and music. Bannon additionally held the position of the college's assistant vice president and director for cultural affairs from 1994 to 1996. The Office of Cultural Affairs developed and advanced faculty, student and staff talent by locating, encouraging, assisting and presenting examples of intellectual and creative excellence from the college community. The objective of the office, established by Bannon, was to develop and sponsor collaborations across disciplines, often with organizations and individuals off campus, and to develop associations for the Foreign Exchange Program (particularly with the Latvian Academy of Fine Art and the Fachhochschule in Dortmund, Germany). Bannon's teaching experience has included adjunct positions at Sierra Nevada College in Nevada; State University of New York College at Buffalo; Empire State College in Buffalo; and Rochester Institute of Technology.

Personal
Bannon is married with four adult children.

Bannon was born in Hanover, New Hampshire, where his father, Dr. Robert Bannon, was a professor of physiological optics and a member of the Dartmouth Eye Institute, and his mother, Frances, was a nurse at Hitchcock Memorial Hospital.

Awards and grants

 * CEO of the Year, Public Relations Society of America, Rochester Chapter, 2008
 * Golden Career Award, FOTOfusion Festival of Photography & Digital Imaging, 2007
 * University Arts Award, St. Bonaventure University, 2002
 * Outstanding Art Administrator of the Year, The Buffalo Partnership (Chamber of Commerce) and the Arts Council of Buffalo & Erie County, 1995
 * Gallaudet College Award for Excellence in Writing About Deafness, 1985
 * Merit Award For The Photo-Pictorialists of Buffalo American Photographic Historical Society, 1982
 * Videospace Experiment Grant, With Ed Emshwiller and Bob O. Lehmann A New York State Arts Council grant, administered by Media Study/Buffalo and WNED-Public Television, to make “Positive/Negative Electronic Faces” (With Emshwiller) and “UB/More To Come” (With Lehmann), 1973–74
 * Bunis Award for Best Article in Western New York State Magazine, 1972
 * American Association of Commerce Publications Best Feature Story, 1970

Publications

 * Hiroshi Watanabe: Findings, 2007 Critical Mass/Photolucida
 * Warheads: Photographs by Diane Bush, 2006 KuDaEditions, USA
 * Picturing Eden, Introduction, 2005 Steidl, Germany
 * Steve McCurry (Phaidon 55s), 2005 Phaidon Press, London, United Kingdom
 * Ansel Adams, 2003 Fundación Pedro Barrié de al Maza, A Coruña, Spain
 * Arcadia Revisited: Photographs by John Pfahl, 1988, with Estelle Jussim University of New Mexico Press
 * Grace Woodworth: Photographer Outside the Common Lines, 1984, with Mary Stanley Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center, Auburn, New York
 * The Taking of Niagara: A History of the Falls in Photography, 1982 Media Study/Buffalo, New York
 * The Photo-Pictorialists of Buffalo, 1981 Media Study/Buffalo with the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York