The Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College has named Kim Conaty, the chief curator of the Whitney Museum in New York as its next director. She will begin in the role on October 27.
Contay has spent nearly a decade at the Whitney, joining in 2017 as curator of drawings and prints. She was promoted to chief curator in 2024. During her tenure at the museum, she organized exhibitions on Edward Hopper, Mary Corse, and Ruth Asawa.
Contay becomes the eighth director to assume the top position and succeeds John Stomberg, who retired earlier this month after a decade in the role. He oversaw the institution’s $50 million expansion, which doubled its footprint and opened in 2019.
“The Hood Museum stands out as a place where discovery is prioritized and viewers of all backgrounds and levels of experience can find points of entry,” Contay said in a statement. “The museum is at an exciting juncture, with a still-new building, tremendous collections, and a great team at the heart of Dartmouth’s Arts District. I am thrilled for the opportunity to lead the museum into its next chapter.”
In a statement, Santiago Schnell, Dartmouth’s chief academic officer and chief budget officer, called Contay is an “exceptional leader and visionary curator who understands that beauty and the arts are central to the life of a university and to our mission of forming whole persons and fostering human connections.” He added that she brings “the knowledge and experience needed to lead the Hood Museum in developing its next strategic plan and continuing to shape its identity as a center for original scholarship and rich student and community engagement.”
Dartmouth College’s associate dean for the arts and humanities Colleen Boggs chaired the search committee with support from the firm Isaacson, Miller. Boggs said Conaty stood out in a “very competitive search, she stood out as the highly credentialed and forward-thinking leader we were hoping to find” and that she will be an “incredible advocate for advancing the arts writ large at Dartmouth.”
