AUSTIN-The interim executive director of the Austin Museum of Art has dropped the interim from his title and become the full-fledged executive director. Dana Friis-Hansen, who's been with the museum since 1999 as chief curator, takes the job, just as fund-raising for the museum's planned 145,000-sf building downtown has slowed with the economy.

As with other nonprofit organizations, the museum's fund-raising has slowed and an October 2001 groundbreaking of the new facility at Fourth and Guadalupe streets has been postponed for 12 months to 18 months. The site is near the city hall-Computer Sciences Corp. complex. In light of the economy, the museum has cut its operating budget and decreased its fund-raising goal for its capital budget from $65 million to $53 million.

New York City's Gluckman Mayner Architects has designed the facility, which has 25,000 sf of gallery, garden and education space. The design also incorporates a 300-seat lecture and film theater and hands-on children's gallery. The museum will be built of cast-in-place concrete, clefted limestone, stainless steel, wood and leather. Before coming to Austin, Friis-Hansen was senior curator at Houston's Contemporary Arts Museum from 1995 to 1999.