Rochelle Slovin on right, at museum's 2007 gala honoring Tom Cruise. Photo: via Wireimage

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views Contributor

Museum of the Moving Image director Rochelle Slovin will retire in February 2011, after 30 years at the helm.

Slovin began her career in the 1960s as an off-Broadway theater performer, and later served in the city government for nearly a decade. In 1981, she was named executive director of the not-for-profit agency, the Astoria Motion Picture and Television Foundation. Upon her hiring, she proposed the plan for constructing the Queens Museum of the Moving Image in an adjacent building. She has served as its director since its opening in September 1988.

The Moving Image is the only museum in the United States, and the first museum in the world, devoted entirely to film, television and digital media. Ms. Slovin and the museum were awarded the State of New York Governor’s Arts Award in 2002.

The museum has been under a $67 million renovation project since 2008. Designed by architect Thomas Lesser, the new 97,700 space feet space is nearly double the size of the former building. The redesigned venue will open to the public on January 15, 2011.

Carl Goodman, Senior Deputy Director of the museum, was chosen to  replace Slovin as the next director. He joined the museum in 1989, and  has served as curator of digital media since 1992.