NEW YORK, N.Y.- Paul Morris, Co-Founder of The Armory Show, announced the appointment of Noah Horowitz, Ph.D., as the art fair’s Managing Director. Horowitz joins The Armory Show leadership team — including Morris and Managing Directors Michael Hall and Deborah Harris — effective today. In his new role, Horowitz will help shape the creative vision of the fair and cultivate relationships with galleries, partner institutions and collectors for Pier 94, the contemporary section. The appointment of Horowitz is among the signals of the important changes being made to the fair’s infrastructure and amenities for the 2012 edition, which will take place March 8-11, 2012 at Piers 92 & 94 in New York City.

“We are extraordinarily pleased to have Noah on board at this pivotal moment and to benefit from his extensive expertise,” said Morris. “Since our launch in 1994 at the Gramercy Park Hotel, The Armory Show has been known as a place for great discoveries, offering an inspired and dynamic space to view the very best in contemporary art. With the 2012 Armory Show, our fourteenth edition, we are making significant changes to the fair, which includes having Noah join our team.”

“The Armory Show is one of the most important cultural events in New York and the international art world as a whole,” said Horowitz. “I am honored and excited to join the fair and look forward to building on this rich tradition as The Armory moves ahead.”

Horowitz joins The Armory Show from the VIP Art Fair, where he served as the online fair's director since its inception and successfully guided its inaugural edition earlier this year. Previously he worked at the Serpentine Gallery in London. Horowitz holds a Ph.D. from the Courtauld Institute of Art and is a member of the faculty of the Sotheby's Institute of Art, New York. His writings and interviews on art and economics have appeared in The New York Times, The Observer, artinfo.com, ArtTactic, and in publications by the Serpentine Gallery, London, the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, and the United Kingdom's Intellectual Property Office. Horowitz is co-editor of The Uncertain States of America Reader, published by Sternberg Press in 2006, and the author of Art of the Deal: Contemporary Art in a Global Financial Market, published by Princeton University Press in 2011.

For the 2012 edition, The Armory Show is making significant changes to the fair layout, amenities and services. The award-winning, New York-based architectural firm Bade Stageberg Cox has been engaged to redesign the floor plan with an eye toward enhancing the art fair experience. Pier 94 will include a select group of participating galleries, each with a larger presence, allowing for more comfortable art viewing. Visitors will enjoy a redesigned VIP lounge and expanded public and exhibitor lounge areas, a new media lounge (home to The Armory Show’s thought-provoking Open Forum talk series), restaurant and cafe areas catered by “farm-to-table” specialists Great Performances, as well as other communal spaces. An architecturally designed connection between Piers 92 and 94 will offer visitors a defined transition between the modern and contemporary sections. Other 2012 highlights include the work of The Armory Show 2012 Commission Artist Theaster Gates and Armory Focus, which will feature the dynamic art of the Nordic countries, curated by Jacob Fabricius, the Director of the Malmö Konsthall.