Dr. Melissa Chiu appointed as Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York

In her role, Dr. Chiu will be responsible for providing artistic direction and leading the operations of the Foundation’s Guggenheim Museum in New York. Chiu will join the Guggenheim Museum on September 1, 2026.

The appointment of Chiu is an important step in the evolution of the Guggenheim Foundation and its constellation of museums in New York, Venice, Bilbao, and Abu Dhabi. Under Westermann’s leadership, Chiu will join a cohort of seasoned Guggenheim directors that includes Director Karole P. B. Vail at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Director General Miren Arzalluz at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and Project Director Stephanie Rosenthal for the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. Westermann’s strategy strengthens the Guggenheim’s unique ability to champion modern and contemporary art from a global perspective, in four locally distinctive museums on three continents.

“I am thrilled to welcome Melissa Chiu as the next director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. My priority has been to build an agile, collaborative leadership team across our constellation while we anticipate opening the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi soon,” said Dr. Westermann. “Melissa has an outstanding and inspiring track record of leadership in the arts, most recently as Director of the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. She transformed the Hirshhorn with the international and local disposition that is so special to our institution, and I look forward to working in close partnership with her.”

“It is an honor to be appointed Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, a singularly iconic institution that has played a vital role in shaping culture since 1959,” said Dr. Chiu. “I am delighted to join Mariët Westermann along with my colleagues in Bilbao, Venice, and Abu Dhabi as we build the Guggenheim of the future together. I want to thank Mariët and the Foundation’s Board of Trustees for entrusting me with this opportunity. I look forward to ensuring that the Guggenheim in New York remains a place of joy and learning about art and artists for all who visit.”

As Director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Chiu has advocated for radical accessibility of modern and contemporary art through the Museum’s exhibitions, acquisitions, and public programs. During her tenure, Chiu increased fundraising by 75 percent, doubled the museum’s attendance in three years, and secured two multi-million-dollar gifts to the Hirshhorn—the largest in the Museum’s history. Under her leadership, the Hirshhorn has commissioned site-specific artworks that connect with the Hirshhorn’s unique architecture and expanded the Museum’s substantial holdings of European and American postwar art to include examples of global modernism. Chiu launched organizational initiatives that have redefined the Hirshhorn into a twenty-first-century institution. Most recently, she has established new technology programs, and spearheaded the transformation of the Hirshhorn’s campus, leading the revitalization of the museum’s Sculpture Garden on the National Mall, which is set to open in October 2026.

“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. She has proved that she can lead with a clear vision that is both local and global working across complex institutions. Her dedication has brought about sustained progress for one of our nation’s most important public museums. We are delighted that Melissa is joining the Guggenheim in New York and look forward to all that she will accomplish alongside her brilliant colleagues,” said J. Tomilson Hill, Chair of the Board of Directors of the Solomon R Guggenheim Foundation.

Since assuming the role of Director and CEO of the Guggenheim Museum and Foundation in 2024, Westermann has strengthened the international network of museums. She has welcomed six new trustees with a diverse range of expertise to the Foundation’s Board. In New York, the home of the Foundation and original flagship museum, Westermann has focused on building new audience engagement, expanding fundraising initiatives, and rebalancing its renowned contemporary art exhibitions with focused presentations of its historic collections. Globally, Westermann has expanded collaboration and exchange among the four Guggenheim museums. Chiu’s arrival will complete Westermann’s restructuring of her global leadership team, which also includes the recent appointments of Lauren Stakias (Chief Development Officer) and Todd Quinn (Chief Financial Officer), and the retention of Juan Ignacio Vidarte, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao’s Director General Emeritus, as Deputy Director and Chief Global Strategy Officer.

Melissa Chiu has served as the Director of the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. since 2014. Prior to her position at the Hirshhorn, Dr. Chiu had a thirteen-year tenure at Asia Society, most recently serving as Vice President of Global Art Programs. Before that, she was the director of the Asia Society Museum. While there, she used a single benefactor’s gift to launch a contemporary art collection complementing the museum’s John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection of traditional Asian art, including major acquisitions by Nam June Paik, Yoko Ono, Mariko Mori, and Yang Fudong. She also commissioned groundbreaking modern art exhibitions, including first-time presentations of Iran’s pre-revolutionary period Iran Modern (2013) and Art and China’s Revolution (2008).  In 2012, Dr. Chiu led the creation of the opening exhibitions and programs for new Asia Society buildings in Hong Kong and Houston.

A native of Australia, Chiu earned her bachelor’s degree in art history and criticism from Western Sydney University in 1992 and her master’s degree in arts administration in 1994 from the College of Fine Arts at the University of New South Wales. She completed her Ph.D. with a dissertation on experimental Chinese art at Western Sydney University in 2005. Chiu has authored and edited several books and catalogues on contemporary art, including Contemporary Art in Asia: A Critical Reader (MIT Press, 2010), and has lectured at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, the Museum of Modern Art, and other universities and museums.

Main Image: Melissa Chiu, Copyright Greg Powers, courtesy Guggenheim Museum