Mariët Westermann has been appointed as director and chief government of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Basis by the establishment’s board of trustees. She is the primary lady to carry the place and succeeds Richard Armstrong, who introduced his departure in summer season 2022.
Westermann will oversee the establishment’s flagship location in New York alongside the Peggy Guggenheim Assortment and Basis in Venice, whereas offering collaborative management to the administrators of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and forthcoming outpost in Abu Dhabi (like that in Bilbao, designed by Frank Gehry), which was initially because of open in 2012. Westermann, who has been the vice chancellor of New York College’s Abu Dhabi campus since 2019 and served as its founding provost from 2007 to 2010, will convey her artwork historic experience and monitor document of philanthropic work within the humanities to her new position.
Westermann’s contributions to the NYU Abu Dhabi venture run the gamut from serving to the varsity attain its full undergraduate scale to recruiting the college’s first Nobel Laureate professor, Wole Soyinka, in addition to growing new programmes, together with an MFA in visible artwork and media and a future MBA provided with NYU’s Stern Faculty of Enterprise. She holds a PhD and masters diploma from NYU’s Insitute of the Arts, with a focus on artwork from the Netherlands.
“I do know the readability of her pondering, the care she has for artwork and artists, and her dedication to the sector,” Glenn D. Lowry, the director of the Museum of Fashionable Artwork in New York, advised The New York Occasions. “I believe she’ll make an excellent colleague.”
Whereas the Guggenheim’s selection to exchange Armstrong, who left the submit after 14 years within the position, with Westermann, who just isn’t knowledgeable museum director and didn’t initially seem on the museum’s record of candidates, is surprising, her expertise as government vice chairman of the Andrew Mellon Basis, director of NYU’s Institute of Superb Arts and affiliate director of analysis on the Clark Artwork Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, converse to her tradition sector {qualifications}. Westermann will take up her new place on 1 June 2024, transferring to Manhattan within the course of.
“I’m assured Dr. Westermann will ably uphold the establishment’s founding imaginative and prescient whereas main our constellation of museums to a extra sustainable future, redefining the Guggenheim’s position in public discourse and opening our doorways—whether or not bodily or digital—to an ever-broader viewers,” Wendy Fisher, president of the Guggenheim Basis’s board of trustees, stated in a press release.
Westermann arrives on the Guggenheim throughout a tumultuous interval at its Manhattan museum, following prolonged contract negotiations with the brand new union representing many employees there, the controversial departure of its chief curator and public claims of racism and discrimination throughout the organisation. The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi has additionally been the topic of protest over the situations for migrant employees within the area’s building business. It’s now anticipated to open in 2026.
“The calls for on museum administrators as we speak are very sophisticated,” Westermann advised The New York Occasions. “The talent set you want for a constellation just like the Guggenheim is a problem and alternative that appears nicely mapped onto the sorts of experiences I’ve had.”
