Melissa Chiu to Lead the Guggenheim After a Decade at the Hirshhorn
Melissa Chiu, the director who helped reshape the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC, is moving to one of New York’s most closely watched museum posts. She will become director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum on September 1, with her final day at the Hirshhorn set for August 31.
Chiu has led the Smithsonian museum since 2014, following 13 years at New York’s Asia Society. An Australian native and a specialist in contemporary Asian and Asian American art, she arrived at the Hirshhorn with deep experience in building audiences across institutions that sit at the intersection of scholarship, public programming, and international contemporary art.
Her tenure at the Hirshhorn was defined by expansion on several fronts. Fundraising increased by 75%, attendance more than doubled, and the museum secured two of the largest monetary gifts in its history. Chiu also broadened the collection, commissioned site-specific works, and introduced new technology programs, helping position the museum as a more active and visible contemporary art institution in Washington.
Among the most significant projects under her leadership was the $68 million revamp of the Hirshhorn’s sculpture garden, designed by artist Hiroshi Sugimoto and scheduled to open in October. The project has been closely watched as a major rethinking of one of the Smithsonian’s most public-facing spaces, where architecture, landscape, and contemporary sculpture meet in a highly visible civic setting.
After Chiu departs, Aaron Seeto, the Hirshhorn’s deputy director, will serve as interim director while the museum searches for a permanent successor. The transition comes as the institution prepares to open the redesigned garden and as the Guggenheim enters a new phase of leadership.
At the Guggenheim, Chiu will work under Mariët Westermann, director and chief executive of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Westermann has served as the New York museum’s director since 2024 and will step back from that role to focus on the foundation’s global network, including the forthcoming museum in Abu Dhabi.
In statements announcing the move, Lonnie G. Bunch III, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, praised Chiu for strengthening the Hirshhorn’s role as a national museum. Westermann called her record in the arts “outstanding and inspiring,” while Chiu said she looked forward to helping build “the Guggenheim of the future” with colleagues in Bilbao, Venice, Abu Dhabi, and New York.
The appointment links two major contemporary art institutions at a moment when museum leaders are being asked to balance local audiences, international reach, and ambitious capital projects. Chiu’s move suggests the Guggenheim is looking for exactly that combination.
