Adam Lerner is the former Director and Chief Animator of the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, where he became known for transforming cultural spaces into vibrant community hubs and challenging conventional ideas about what those spaces could be. The New York Times identified him as a “revolutionary” in his field for creating programs that attracted wide audiences and for making those audiences feel part of a larger story.
Most recently, he served as CEO of the Palm Springs Art Museum, where he led a generational shift toward younger, more diverse audiences and a deeper sense of community relevance.
Across two decades in executive leadership, Adam has earned a reputation for turning spaces into platforms of connection, belonging, and civic value. At the Palm Springs Art Museum, he rebuilt public trust and financial health, increasing annual operations from $6.5 million to over $10 million and doubling contributed revenue within four years. In Denver, Adam created a venue that was a cultural anchor in the city and a symbol of its emerging creative identity. There, he pioneered unconventional programs like Mixed Taste: Tag-Team Lectures on Unrelated Topics and Art Fitness Training, which were emulated by museums around the country. That distinctive approach led to remarkable growth and connection. He tripled attendance, doubled the budget, and built a new kind of public engagement rooted in a voice that spoke to younger audiences and brought a fresh, human tone to the field.
Adam’s leadership is guided by a clear sense of purpose, aligning mission, operations, and identity to create lasting cultural and financial strength. Known for combining creativity with business rigor, he has driven results in attendance, funding, and community relevance. His success leading complex institutions through change has made him a sought-after voice in conversations about the future of civic and cultural enterprises, including keynote talks at TEDx, the Aspen Ideas Festival, and Americans for the Arts.
Over time, Adam’s own interest in wellness and mind–body practices deepened, and he began integrating that perspective into his institutional work. In his last year at MCA Denver, he took a leading role in Caring for Denver, one of the nation’s most forward-thinking public initiatives focused on mental health. This growing interest in wellness and mind–body practices now shapes his work with Coba, where he is applying his experience in community-building to a new kind of civic space devoted to restoration and connection. Drawing on his career building institutions that make people feel seen, inspired, and connected, he brings to Coba a unique blend of cultural vision, entrepreneurial strategy, and civic purpose.