DEERFIELD, MASS. — Historic Deerfield, Inc., has announced the appointment of Joseph P. Gromacki, Esq., of Chicago, Ill., to the position of chair of the Historic Deerfield Board of Trustees. Gromacki previously served as vice chair and was unanimously elected chair by the Board of Trustees November 7. He succeeds Anne K. Groves of New York City, who served as chair for ten years. She will continue her support of the museum as a trustee member of the board of trustees, having been unanimously elected to serve as vice chair at this same meeting.

“Both Anne and Joe have had a long involvement with Historic Deerfield,” Historic Deerfield President Philip Zea said. “As we look to the future under Joe’s leadership, we also thank Anne for a decade of commitment and guidance through a critical period in our history.”

Gromacki is an active patron of the arts, serving on the board of trustees of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Terra Foundation for American Art and several other museums and arts organizations. He is a member of the National Trust Council, a supporting organization for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He also serves on the board of directors of the Chicago Botanic Garden.

“I am honored to serve as the next chair of the Historic Deerfield Board of Trustees,” he said. “I seek to continue the outstanding work of our prior chair Anne Groves, whom I respect and admire greatly, in implementing our strategic plan and taking the museum to new levels of achievement. Historic Deerfield is one of the most beautiful and historically significant places in America. The preservation of Old Deerfield — and its unique sense of place — for the benefit of generations to come is extremely important.”

Groves and her husband, Ray, are longtime supporters of Historic Deerfield. In her tenure as chair of the board, she helped to steer the museum through several events, including the renovation and restoration of the Deerfield Inn as a result of flooding from Tropical Storm Irene in 2011, and the introduction of a long-term strategic plan for the museum that will help it to change and grow through the coming years. She is a well-known collector of ceramics and other decorative arts, having started her serious collecting during her many years of teaching.

Groves was a founder of the Connecticut Ceramics Study Circle and is a member of several well-known ceramics and collecting groups. She is a board member of the American Ceramic Circle and a member of the Wrightsman group at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

For information, www.historic-deerfield.org or 413-775-7214.