RICHMOND, VA.- The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has named Stephen D. Bonadies to be its chief conservator and deputy director for collections management, VMFA Director Alex Nyerges has announced.

A 27-year veteran of museum work, Bonadies comes to Richmond from the Cincinnati Art Museum, where he held positions including chief conservator, director of museum services, deputy director and interim co-director. He will begin work at VMFA March 2.

“VMFA’s collections management division was formed last year in a strategic realignment of functions and staff to facilitate a larger and more efficient organization. The division is comprised of four of the museum’s key departments: conservation, registration, photography and photo resources. The division is responsible for the care, conservation, recording and handling of the museum’s permanent collections,” Nyerges says.

Bonadies earned a master’s degree in art conservation with a certificate of advanced study from the Cooperstown Graduate Program at State University College at Oneonta, N.Y., and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, cum laude, from the University of Rochester. He also studied non-profit management at the Harvard Business School Executive Education Program.

Before joining the Cincinnati Art Museum, he worked in conservation at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and for the Friuli Italian Art and Monument Committee in Cividale del Friuli, Italy, and served as a lecturer in conservation science at the Cooperstown Graduate Program.

He has also been a panelist and reviewer for the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities and for the Institute for Museum and Library Services, and has been a fellow of and served on the national board of directors for the American Institute for Conservation.

Nyerges says Bonadies’ experience will serve him well at VMFA. “During the coming 18 months, VMFA will conserve and install many of the 5,000 works of art which will be on display in our newly expanded and renovated galleries, a truly mammoth undertaking. During his tenure at Cincinnati, Stephen was involved in two equally important reinstallations and expansions.”

VMFA’s $150-million James W. and Frances G. McGlothlin Wing, now under construction, will open next year.

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is on the Boulevard at Grove Avenue. VMFA is an educational institution of the Commonwealth of Virginia. For additional information about exhibitions and programs, telephone (804) 340-1400 or visit the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Web site, www.vmfa.museum.