ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF DREXEL UNIVERSITY
In 2022 McDougall was engaged as the Vice President Experience and Engagement at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University. The Academy, founded in 1812 by a group of leading naturalists, is the first of its kind in North America. Here McDougall is overseeing the development of future exhibition, public programming and learning initiatives.
PHILADELPHIA ART ALLIANCE AT UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS
In 2018 McDougall was appointed to lead the process of revitalizing the Philadelphia Art Alliance, one of the first multidisciplinary art spaces in the U.S. recently merged with the University of the Arts. She developed the initial program vision for a public arts forum, a “living room for the arts” in the heart of Philadelphia.
EXPLORATORIUM Center for Art & INquiry
McDougall was the founding director of the Exploratorium Center for Art & Inquiry in San Francisco. Founded in 1969 by physicist and educator Frank Oppenheimer, the Exploratorium is a celebrated public learning laboratory renowned for its learner centric design. The arts are an integral element of the Exploratorium’s multidisciplinary, experiential learning philosophy.
in 2011 McDougall organized the conference Art as a Way of Knowing. This led to a rethinking of the strategic direction of the Exploratorium’s cross-program work in the arts as the museum moved to a new location on the San Francisco downtown waterfront. As CAI director McDougall oversaw the artist-in-residence program, the new public art initiative, Over the Water, and other special projects. McDougall worked with artists including Theo Jansen, Fujiko Nakaya, Paul Ramirez Jonas, Tim Hawkinson, Jeppe Hein, Leo Villareal, Rafael Lozano Hemmer, Rosten Woo, Ilana Halperin, Nina Katchadourian, Meara O’Reilly, Harrell Fletcher, Zarouhie Abdalian, and Luckydragons. She also facilitated the acquisition of artworks by Katie Paterson, and Ivan Muscovich into the collection.
WATTIS INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART, CALIFORNIA COLLEGE OF THE ARTS
Under the leadership of Lawrence Rinder, McDougall worked on the founding team of the CCA Institute for Art (later renamed the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art) to initiate a new public exhibition and public programming forum for the California College of the Arts . As the first curator of art & design, McDougall conceptualized and presented interdisciplinary exhibitions and public programs of international contemporary art, architecture, and design integrated with the colleges’ interdisciplinary art and design programs. Exhibitions she curated included: Rooms for Listening; Utopia Now! and In the Making.
SEED FUND
McDougall developed the mission and directed the granting strategy in the creation of a new private foundation called the Seed Fund to support visionary work in art, architecture, and urban ecology. Later she served on the board of trustees.
STUDIO FOR URBAN PROJECTS
McDougall was a founding collaborator of the Studio for Urban Projects with artist/architects Ali Sant and Rick Johnson. Based out of a storefront in San Francisco’s Mission District, the group organized public conversations on themes of urban ecology, and developed public art projects.