{"id":390861,"date":"2026-04-10T01:37:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T01:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/390861\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T01:37:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T01:37:07","slug":"smithsonian-museum-director-to-move-to-guggenheim-a-moment-of-change-us-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/390861\/","title":{"rendered":"Smithsonian museum director to move to Guggenheim: \u2018a moment of change\u2019 | US news"},"content":{"rendered":"

A museum director at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington has announced that she is leaving<\/a> to take over at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.<\/p>\n

Melissa Chiu<\/a> has been director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden on the National Mall for 12 years. In an interview on Thursday, she insisted that her departure is not related to Donald Trump\u2019s efforts to interfere with the Smithsonian.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot at all,\u201d Chiu told the Guardian. \u201cThe Guggenheim is an extraordinary institution. It is one of the major museums in our field. It was never part of my decision-making process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chiu becomes the fourth Smithsonian director to leave over the past two years. Stephanie Stebich, who was head of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, was removed in summer 2024 \u201cfollowing years of complaints from staff about her management\u201d, the Washington Post newspaper reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kevin Young, the director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, stepped down in April 2025<\/a> after four years in the role. Shanita Brackett is now the acting director.<\/p>\n

Kim Sajet, director of the National Portrait Gallery, resigned in June last year<\/a> following public pressure from Trump, who claimed on social media he had fired her because she was \u201ca highly partisan person\u201d and \u201cstrong supporter\u201d of diversity and inclusion initiatives.<\/p>\n

Chiu was born in Darwin, Australia, and spent a decade as director of the Asia Society in New York. Since joining the Hirshhorn in 2014, she has been credited with spearheading digital innovation and expanding the museum\u2019s educational programmes.<\/p>\n

She raised nearly $250m and oversaw an expansion of the museum\u2019s permanent collection. Chiu\u2019s legacy will also include a revamped sculpture garden, scheduled to reopen to the public this autumn.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been a moment of change for actually a long time,\u201d the 54-year-old reflected. \u201cI would say dating back to the first days of Covid that, as a museum in the public sphere with a national mission and a mandate to serve the public, we have worked through all of these challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach one forced us in a way to develop a set of new skills with which to fulfill our mission, whether it was us being physically closed and pivoting to an online presence, whether it was us coming to terms with inheriting an art history that needed to be broadened with new kinds of acquisitions, whether in media or from artists who were under-recognised before.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen we have today where there are different kinds of external pressures and a climate that is very different from even five years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the highlights of Chiu\u2019s exhibition programme was the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama\u2019s Infinity Mirror Rooms<\/a>, which broke attendance records and was dubbed the \u201cHamilton\u2019 of the DC art world\u201d by the Washington Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a real game changer for the Hirshhorn,\u201d she recalled. \u201cIt was a show that I had always dreamed of. She was one of the first artists I met with and I proposed the show and she loved it. Kusama was certainly known at that time but that exhibition that we did in 2017 set a new appreciation for her Infinity Mirror Rooms that did not exist before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chiu is scheduled to depart on 31 August ahead of her move to the Guggenheim\u2019s celebrated Frank Lloyd Wright-designed headquarters on Fifth Avenue. Aaron Seeto, the Hirshhorn\u2019s deputy director, has been appointed to serve as interim director.<\/p>\n

Lonnie Bunch<\/a>, secretary of the Smithsonian, which is the world\u2019s biggest museum, education and research complex, said: \u201cMelissa has guided the Hirshhorn with thoughtfulness and purpose, strengthening its role as a national museum while supporting artists, scholars and the public. We are grateful for her leadership and wish her continued success in this next chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump issued an executive order last year entitled \u201cRestoring Truth and Sanity to American History\u201d. It accused the Smithsonian of promoting \u201cnarratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive\u201d. In January this year the Smithsonian gave the White House documents on its planned exhibits in response to a demand to share details of what its museums are planning to mark the 250th anniversary of US independence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A museum director at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington has announced that she is leaving to take over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-390861","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}