Leadership

Throughout his tenure as the Frederick and Jan Mayer Director of the Denver Art Museum (DAM), beginning in 2010, Christoph Heinrich has continually pushed the boundaries of traditional art museum experiences.

From its inception in 2011, Heinrich oversaw the $175 million Martin Building renovation project and endowment campaign, which included the renovation of the Gio Ponti-designed Lanny & Sharon Martin Building and the construction of the new Anna & John J. Sie Welcome Center. He has elevated the DAM’s reputation for creating original content to a new high through world-exclusive exhibitions such as Claude Monet: The Truth of Nature (2019) (which he co-curated), Brilliant: Cartier in the 20th Century (2014), and Becoming Van Gogh (2009). His vision for engaging audiences with the museum’s global art collections in new and meaningful ways has resulted in unprecedented collaborations across departments to showcase the breadth and depth of the collections, and he has been an encouraging force for live interactions with artists and visitor creativity. Additionally, Heinrich has championed landmark acquisitions, including a bequest of more than 20 Impressionist landscape paintings in 2014, which followed the acclaimed exhibition of those works in Nature as Muse: Impressionist Landscapes from the Frederic C. Hamilton Collection and the Denver Art Museum, curated by Heinrich.

Prior to his director role, Heinrich served as the DAM’s Polly and Mark Addison Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art and deputy director. Before joining the DAM, Heinrich was at the Hamburg Kunsthalle where, during his 12-year tenure, he organized more than 50 exhibitions. Heinrich attended the Universität Wien in Vienna, where he studied art history, German literature, and dramatics. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. at the Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität in Munich, Germany.

A museum board member since 1994, J. Landis (Lanny) Martin has served on the museum’s Executive Committee and was chairman of the Finance Committee from 1996 to 2013. From 2011 to 2013, Martin served as the Co-Chair of the Board alongside Frederic C. Hamilton and was elected as Chairman of the Board in 2013. Throughout the years, Martin has been instrumental in guiding the museum’s vision including the completion of the Hamilton Building, and support for major programs and exhibitions. In honor of his contributions, one of the museum’s primary exhibition galleries is named in honor of Lanny and Sharon Martin, as is the plaza, which connects the museum to the adjacent neighborhood.

Beyond his role at the DAM, Martin is also chairman of the Clyfford Still Museum Foundation, Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Northwestern University and is actively involved with the Central City Opera as Chairman Emeritus. Martin founded Platte River Equity in 2005 after serving more than 18 years in senior management positions with publicly-held industrial, chemical, and metals companies.

From 1989 until his retirement in 2005, Martin was Chairman and CEO of Titanium Metals Corporation. Under Martin’s leadership, TIMET’s equity value increased from $20 million to more than $3.5 billion. Martin is a founding director and Chairman of the Board of Crown Castle International Corp., a leading independent owner, and operator of wireless communication sites. Martin is a lead director of Intrepid Potash, Inc. and the Apartment Investment Management Company, the largest owner, operator, and manager of apartments in the United States. Martin is an avid art collector including a major collection of mid-20th-century works, as well as the art of the American West. He and his wife, Sharon, have three children, Mary Lester, Sarah Stettner, and Emily Jones.