Franklin W. Robinson has been reappointed to a fourth five-year term as the Richard J. Schwartz Director of the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art.

His reappointment, effective July 1, was announced by Cornell Provost Biddy Martin.

"It is common knowledge that Frank is an extraordinarily gifted and enthusiastic leader of a much treasured campus and community resource," Martin said. "The museum has expanded in interesting and significant areas over the past 15 years because of Frank's strategic vision and passion for [its] mission."

Since Robinson became director in 1992, the profile of the museum has risen considerably, through year-round public events, collaborations with alumni, faculty, students and campus organizations, and participation in the local Discovery Trail.

"It's very unusual for museum directors to be in one place for more than a decade," Robinson said. "But it's useful to be in a place for that long. My vision of a museum is it should be the intellectual, cultural and social center of the campus and the community, and that's what I think this museum really is. It's an exciting place, a place for intellectual fun."

As the museum's most visible advocate, Robinson travels 100 days a year to meet with alumni.

"We're reaching out to alumni a great deal; this year alone we have nine exhibitions drawn from alumni collections," he said. "The curators and I must travel. The art is in New York or London or Tokyo or Beijing or what have you; and most of the alumni are in New York City, California and Florida. If I didn't love it, I wouldn't do it."

Robinson said he is proud of the museum's growth in acquisitions for the permanent collection, its publications and its use of such new technology as handheld Palm Pilots programmed for gallery tours. The collection has grown to 32,000 works today from 9,000 works of art when the Johnson opened in 1973. The museum attracted 82,000 visitors in 2006.

Robinson said he is excited about the Johnson's next phase. The museum will break ground in 2008 for a 16,000-square-foot study center wing to enhance its academic mission with added exhibition and lecture space. Also, the fifth floor will be renovated to better showcase an extensive Asian art collection.

"The wing will change what we do here -- [and] it will make the permanent collection more accessible," Robinson said.

Before coming to Cornell, Robinson was director of the Museum of Art at the Rhode Island School of Design for 13 years. He also taught at Williams College (where he directed the museum and the history of art graduate program) and at Dartmouth College. Robinson earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard College in 1961 and his master's and doctoral degrees at Harvard in 1963 and 1970, respectively; he has written scholarly works, exhibition catalogs and three volumes of poetry.

"It's been fun. I've been very, very lucky," Robinson said of his role at Cornell. "Very few institutions have this kind of stability, and value human beings and scholarship and put things in the proper order. This institution does."