A museum director at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington has announced that she is leaving to take over at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Melissa Chiu has been director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden on the National Mall for 12 years. In an interview on Thursday, she insisted that her departure is not related to Donald Trump’s efforts to interfere with the Smithsonian.
“Not at all,” Chiu told the Guardian. “The Guggenheim is an extraordinary institution. It is one of the major museums in our field. It was never part of my decision-making process.”
Chiu becomes the fourth Smithsonian director to leave over the past two years. Stephanie Stebich, who was head of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, was removed in summer 2024 “following years of complaints from staff about her management”, the Washington Post newspaper reported.
Kevin Young, the director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, stepped down in April 2025 after four years in the role. Shanita Brackett is now the acting director.
Kim Sajet, director of the National Portrait Gallery, resigned in June last year following public pressure from Trump, who claimed on social media he had fired her because she was “a highly partisan person” and “strong supporter” of diversity and inclusion initiatives.
Chiu was born in Darwin, Australia, and spent a decade as director of the Asia Society in New York. Since joining the Hirshhorn in 2014, she has been credited with spearheading digital innovation and expanding the museum’s educational programmes.
She raised nearly $250m and oversaw an expansion of the museum’s permanent collection. Chiu’s legacy will also include a revamped sculpture garden, scheduled to reopen to the public this autumn.
“It has been a moment of change for actually a long time,” the 54-year-old reflected. “I would say dating back to the first days of Covid that, as a museum in the public sphere with a national mission and a mandate to serve the public, we have worked through all of these challenges.
“Each one forced us in a way to develop a set of new skills with which to fulfill our mission, whether it was us being physically closed and pivoting to an online presence, whether it was us coming to terms with inheriting an art history that needed to be broadened with new kinds of acquisitions, whether in media or from artists who were under-recognised before.
“Then we have today where there are different kinds of external pressures and a climate that is very different from even five years ago.”
Among the highlights of Chiu’s exhibition programme was the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Roomswhich broke attendance records and was dubbed the “Hamilton’ of the DC art world” by the Washington Post.
“It was a real game changer for the Hirshhorn,” she recalled. “It was a show that I had always dreamed of. She was one of the first artists I met with and I proposed the show and she loved it. Kusama was certainly known at that time but that exhibition that we did in 2017 set a new appreciation for her Infinity Mirror Rooms that did not exist before.”
Chiu is scheduled to depart on 31 August ahead of her move to the Guggenheim’s celebrated Frank Lloyd Wright-designed headquarters on Fifth Avenue. Aaron Seeto, the Hirshhorn’s deputy director, has been appointed to serve as interim director.
Lonnie Bunchsecretary of the Smithsonian, which is the world’s biggest museum, education and research complex, said: “Melissa has guided the Hirshhorn with thoughtfulness and purpose, strengthening its role as a national museum while supporting artists, scholars and the public. We are grateful for her leadership and wish her continued success in this next chapter.”
Trump issued an executive order last year entitled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History”. It accused the Smithsonian of promoting “narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive”. In January this year the Smithsonian gave the White House documents on its planned exhibits in response to a demand to share details of what its museums are planning to mark the 250th anniversary of US independence.
