Melissa Chiu has stepped down as director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington and will start a new role as director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York on 1 September.
Chiu joined the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum as director in 2014. Prior to this she held several senior leadership roles including as director of the Asia Society Museum in New York and vice president of its global art programs.
Chiu’s appointment is part of a broader restructuring of the Guggenheim’s management in anticipation of the opening of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. The museum in New York is currently led by Mariët Westermann, director and chief executive of the Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, who will step back to focus on overseeing the Foundation’s ‘constellation’ of museums in New York, Venice, Bilbao and forthcoming in Abu Dhabi.
‘I have followed Melissa Chiu’s career for many years and seen her transform the Hirshhorn Museum into one of the most dynamic destinations for modern and contemporary art in the country’, said J. Tomilson Hill, chair of the board of directors of the Guggenheim Foundation, in a statement. ‘She has proved that she can lead with a clear vision that is both local and global working across complex institutions.’
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