Museum group names president

A veterinarian, educator and former political candidate from Minneapolis has been chosen as the new president and chief executive of the American Assn. of Museums, the group announced Thursday.

Ford W. Bell, who ran for the U.S. Senate last year as a Democrat, will lead a group that represents more than 15,000 individual members and 3,000 museums and cultural organizations. Bell, 57, succeeds Edward Able, who retired last year after 20 years as the longest-serving head of the organization, which sets standards for museums nationally.

Bell has served as a trustee of the Bell Museum of Natural History at the University of Minnesota, which is named for his grandfather who helped build the museum, James F. Bell.