Irvin took the helm of the Museum in 2003 and oversaw the merger into Nova Southeastern University (NSU) in 2008. Over the last seven years, the Museum has achieved unprecedented success with exhibitions that have made the Museum the most attended art museum in South Florida. In addition to bringing extraordinary exhibitions such as the now infamous Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs and the upcoming Vatican Splendors (January 2011) and Offering of the Angels: Paintings and Tapestries from the Uffizi (November 2011), the Museum has developed a national reputation for its own collections that have been brought together since the Museum’s founding in 1958.

The Museum’s Studio School, which was inaugurated in 2004, has become a major part of the educational program; and there are plans underway to expand the School in a renovated 14,000 sq ft building enabling it to offer a larger curriculum -- ceramics, sculpture, photography, graphic design -- with the goal of serving over 2500 students annually by 2014. A major renovation has recently been completed of the Museum’s Plaza which will literally extend the cultural life of the Museum and NSU into the City.