Christopher Bedford, chief curator at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio, will become the new director of the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University. (Photo by Andrew Spear for The Boston Globe)

By Geoff Edgers Globe Staff

The Rose Art Museum, without a permanent leader for three years after Brandeis University’s messy attempt to sell its valuable collection of modern art, will name a new director on Friday, in what many are calling a rebirth of the institution.

Christopher Bedford, 35, chief curator at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio, is set to arrive in September with plans to launch an ambitious exhibition program, nurture donors, and even add new art to the Rose’s already stunning collection, which has been valued at $350 million.

Prominent art-world observers, who have viewed Brandeis with skepticism since it tried to close the Rose and sell its art three years ago, praised the Bedford hiring.

“Words mean only so much,” said Joel Wachs, president of the Andy Warhol Foundation in New York, which has funded several of Bedford’s exhibitions in the past and had been waiting to see if Brandeis leaders would make good on their promises to revive the Rose. “You’ve got to put your money where your mouth is. This is a real step in the right direction.”

The Rose’s last director, Michael Rush, left protesting university plans to sell art to pay for the school’s operating budget. The Rose has been in art world purgatory since January 2009, when then-president Jehuda Reinharz announced plans to sell its collection, which includes works by such big-name artists as Warhol, Jasper Johns, and Willem de Kooning.