There’s been a lot of drama in the world of museum directors lately, headlined by the meltdown at the Philadelphia Art Museum. Perhaps just as dramatic, though, is the sheer number of open directorships at American art museums. In just the past two days, two major jobs opened up: at the Queens Museum, where Sally Tallant, who has been in the role since 2019, will depart to lead London’s Hayward Gallery; and at the Telfair Museums in Savannah, Georgia, where David Brenneman, hired in 2024, announced his departure because of an unspecified serious medical condition.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. A significant number of American art museums are currently without a director—or soon will be. (If any of these positions have been filled, the appointments have not yet been made public.) The highest-profile vacancy is likely the National Portrait Gallery, which has been without a director since Kim Sajet, who had led the institution since 2013, resigned last June after President Trump attempted to fire her. A brief standoff between the Smithsonian and Trump followed; Sajet has since taken the top job at the Milwaukee Art Museum.
But the National Portrait Gallery is far from the only institution with a substantial operating budget—around $20 million or more—to be without a permanent director. MOCA Los Angeles has been directorless since Johanna Burton, the museum’s fifth director since 2008, left last year to lead ICA Philadelphia. In New York, Lisa Phillips, director of the New Museum since 1999, will depart in April; no successor has yet been announced. In December, the Portland Art Museum lost Brian Ferriso, its director since 2006, to the Dallas Art Museum. At the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Dr. Andrew J. Walker stepped down at the end of August after 14 years at the helm. In September, Olivier Meslay, director of the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, since 2016, announced that he will depart this summer. The Newark Museum of Art—New Jersey’s largest museum, with a collection of some 130,000 artworks and 170,000 science and natural history objects—lost its director of six years last spring, when Linda Harrison left for family reasons; the museum is now led by two interim co-directors. And the Smithsonian American Art Museum has had an acting director since Stephanie Stebich departed in 2024, reportedly following staff complaints.
Moving into the $15 million–plus category, Halona Norton-Westbrook, director of the Honolulu Museum of Art since 2020, moved on in July to become director of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth—big shoes to fill, given that the retiring Marla Price had held the post since 1992. At the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Kathryn Kanjo, director since 2016, will have her last day on January 30 before departing to lead UC Irvine’s Langson Orange County Museum of Art. Raphaela Platow left the Speed Art Museum, the oldest and largest art museum in Kentucky, last August for personal reasons after four years in the role.
Among smaller regional museums, the Contemporary Arts Center Cincinnati announced last month that its director, Christina Vassallo, would leave on January 2 after three years; she has taken a position as executive director of the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage in Philadelphia. At the Columbia Museum of Art in Columbia, South Carolina—an institution that was considered relatively minor until it began receiving nearly 80 Renaissance and Baroque works from the Kress Foundation starting in 1954—Della Watkins, director since 2017, will depart in April, reportedly to care for elderly parents. The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, the oldest fine arts museum in Alabama and the first in the state to be accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, has been without a permanent director since 2023.
Leading college and university museums are also in flux. Lynn Gumpert retired in mid-April 2025 after serving as director of New York University’s Grey Art Museum since 1997; a successor has not yet been named. The Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University has been without a director since Gaëtane Verna resigned last October after just three years, amid reports of staff discontent and budget issues. Jessica Levin Martinez, director of Cornell’s Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art since 2019, will begin her new role next month as director of the Corning Museum of Glass. The Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, which holds one of the oldest and largest collections of any university museum in the U.S., announced in October that its director, John Stomberg, will retire in June after a decade in the role. At Florida International University’s Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum in Miami, Miriam Machado has served as interim director since Joyce Pomeroy left in 2024 to lead the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, New Hampshire. And the Krannert Art Museum at the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign has had an interim director since July, when Jon Seydl, who had led the museum since 2017, departed to become director of the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College.
In the specialized—but nonetheless prestigious—category, the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, will lose its director of an astonishing 40 years when Laurie Norton Moffatt retires later this year.
Last but not least, for those who closely follow the comings and goings of American museum leadership, it is worth noting that the director with the longest recent tenure has already stepped down. Louis Zona, of the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio—the first museum dedicated exclusively to American art—retired in December after leading the institution since 1981.
A 2023 New York Times article detailed the many challenges museum directors face, from diversifying collections and navigating labor issues to handling restitution claims and increased scrutiny of board members. Since then, the list of complications has only grown. One more open position underscores the point: at Pepperdine University’s Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, where Andrea Györödy, director since 2021, resigned in October amid a censorship controversy.
