“We did a national search and were thrilled to find the new leader we were looking for right here in Seattle,” said Lucia Ramirez Levias, President of the Board of Directors of Reel Grrls. “Robin has been a key player on the transformation team at the Frye. As Reel Grrls just celebrated its tenth anniversary, she’s the right woman to build upon our success and extend the influence of the program through partnerships with cultural organizations and educational institutions in Seattle and beyond. Robin is unstoppable. She’s going to do a sensational job of inspiring more and more girls to make their voices heard.”

First as a member of the curatorial team at the Henry Art Museum, the University of Washington’s premier museum of modern and contemporary art, and since 2004, at the Frye Art Museum, Held has earned a reputation as one of Seattle’s most innovative curators of contemporary art.

“I’m honored to be selected as Reel Grrls’ next Executive Director and to have the opportunity to build on the remarkable program Malory has established,” said Held. “I’m very excited to start collaborating with the Reel Grrls team to increase the number of young women we serve in the community while enriching our program and ensuring the organization’s sustainability for the future.”

Held trained as a new-media artist at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she received her B.F.A. She earned an M.A. degree and a PhD., ABD in Art History from the University of Washington, Seattle. Her studies focused on contemporary art and critical theory in new media, feminist philosophy, and theories of embodiment. She has published and lectured extensively on contemporary art and performance.

“As the founder of Reel Grrls, I couldn’t be more thrilled to have someone of Robin Held’s caliber as my successor,” said Graham. “Robin’s approach to championing emerging artists and new media is so in alignment with the values of Reel Grrls, and her enthusiasm is so infectious, I can’t wait to see where her leadership takes the organization.” 

Among Held’s top priorities will be to expand and strengthen connections between participants in the Reel Grrls program and women leaders in emerging markets of media production, including video games, apps, and experimental media, as well as in independent filmmaking, animation, video production, and presentation in art galleries and museums.

“I want to see the art of young women in Reel Grrls included in prestigious film festivals like Sundance and Cannes,” said Held. “I look forward to our graduates being named MacArthur Fellows and winning Alpert Awards and Rome Prizes. In its second decade of service to our community, Reel Grrls will lead the way to a new and necessary normal: a day when there are so many women in top roles across all the arts that we no longer use the qualifier ‘woman’ to describe world-class filmmakers and artists.”

Recognized nationally as an innovator in media-making training for young women from diverse communities, Reel Grrls envisions a world in which women and girls have leadership roles in creating media and are valued and represented behind and in front of the camera. The Reel Grrls program is distinguished by its mentorship model: girls work directly with women filmmakers to learn media skills and to realize their power, talent, and influence through media production.