Steven Litt of the Cleveland Plain Dealer announces that the Cleveland Museum has chosen David Frank to lead the institution into the future:

The museum’s trustees voted unanimously Thursday to appoint Montreal native David Franklin, deputy director and chief curator of the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, as the Cleveland museum’s new director. He will be the CMA’s eighth director since the museum opened in 1916.

Franklin, 49, is a respected scholar and curator with strong international connections among dealers, collectors and museums, which he hopes to translate into high-impact art acquisitions and exhibitions in Cleveland. He called the Cleveland museum “a sleeping giant,” and said, “my role is to reactivate the museum and bring it to life again.” In an interview Thursday, Franklin said he’ll judge himself on how well the museum capitalizes on the attention it will garner between 2013 — when it is scheduled to complete a $350 million expansion and renovation — and its centennial in 2016.

David Franklin of the National Gallery of Canada named director of the Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland Plain Dealer)