{"id":191296,"date":"2026-04-09T20:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T20:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/191296\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T20:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T20:10:08","slug":"melissa-chiu-leaving-hirshhorn-to-take-over-new-yorks-guggenheim-museum-the-art-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/191296\/","title":{"rendered":"Melissa Chiu leaving Hirshhorn to take over New York\u2019s Guggenheim Museum – The Art Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Melissa Chiu, the longtime director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden<\/a> in Washington, DC, is leaving her post to lead New York\u2019s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum<\/a>. Chiu will not be taking any time off between jobs: her final day at the Hirshhorn is 31 August, and she will take up the helm at the Guggenheim on 1 September.<\/p>\n

Chiu, a native of Australia and an expert in contemporary Asian and Asian American art, has served as the Hirshhorn\u2019s director since 2014\u2014a position she accepted after having spent 13 years at New York\u2019s Asia Society. <\/p>\n

During her time at the Hirshhorn, Chiu increased fundraising by 75%, more than doubled the museum\u2019s attendance, secured two of the largest monetary gifts in the institution\u2019s history, expanded its collection and commissioned site-specific works and introduced new technology programmes. She also led the $68m garden revamp designed by the artist Hiroshi Sugimoto, which is scheduled to open in October<\/a>. Upon her departure, the museum\u2019s deputy director, Aaron Seeto, will take over as interim director while the museum searches for a permanent successor.<\/p>\n

\u201cMelissa has guided the Hirshhorn with thoughtfulness and purpose, strengthening its role as a national museum while supporting artists, scholars and the public,\u201d Lonnie G. Bunch III<\/a>, the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution\u2014of which the Hirshhorn is a part\u2014said in a statement. \u201cWe are grateful for her leadership and wish her continued success in this next chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the Guggenheim, Chiu will work under Mari\u00ebt Westermann, the director and chief executive of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Westermann has been serving as the New York museum\u2019s director since 2024; she will step back from the role to concentrate on overseeing the Guggenheim’s many branches across the globe\u2014including the forthcoming museum in Abu Dhabi<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cMelissa has an outstanding and inspiring track record of leadership in the arts,\u201d Westermann said in a statement. \u201cShe transformed the Hirshhorn with the international and local disposition that is so special to our institution, and I look forward to working in close partnership with her.\u201d<\/p>\n

In statements for the museums\u2019 announcements, Chiu said she was honoured both to have worked at the Hirshhorn and by her Guggenheim appointment. \u201cI am delighted to join Mari\u00ebt Westermann along with my colleagues in Bilbao, Venice and Abu Dhabi as we build the Guggenheim of the future together,\u201d she said. \u201cI look forward to ensuring that the Guggenheim in New York remains a place of joy and learning about art and artists for all who visit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melissa Chiu, the longtime director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC, is leaving her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[48504,4074,76578,3139,9,24,11,10,76579,39017,6648],"class_list":{"0":"post-191296","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-appointments-departures","9":"tag-dc","10":"tag-hirshhorn-museum-and-sculpture-garden","11":"tag-museums-heritage","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-new-york-headlines","15":"tag-new-york-news","16":"tag-smithsonian-institution","17":"tag-solomon-r-guggenheim-museum","18":"tag-washington"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}