The director of the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is leaving today after 12 years to take over the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Melissa Chiu, now 54, arrived at a Hirshhorn in turmoil in 2014 after a decade as director of the Asia Society Museum in New York.
Chiu rebuilt and expanded the board — shrunken after the high-profile collapse of the museum’s “Bubble” construction project — and attendance at the Hirshhorn doubled within three years of her arrival, reaching a peak of 1.1 million in 2017, according to Smithsonian Institution data.
Attendance declined to 484,000 last year, coinciding with one of Chiu’s signature projects, a sprawling, four-year renovation that closed the Hirshhorn’s sculpture garden. Museum leaders expect to complete the roughly $70 million overhaul — which the Hirshhorn has described as creating a “new front door” to the Mall — at the end of October, and then turn to interior renovations.
Chiu has kept ties to New York through her tenure — and not without controversy. Less than a year after taking over, she held the Hirshhorn’s 40th-anniversary gala in New York rather than Washington, a decision The Washington Post’s Philip Kennicott at the time called “a snub, and a distressing indication that she doesn’t understand the purpose, the history or the identity of the museum she now leads.”
Chiu was undeterred. She has held the Hirshhorn gala in New York every year since, including for the museum’s 50th anniversary. She also started the Hirshhorn Ball, a biannual fundraiser in Washington. She has expanded the museum’s collection with blue-chip names and raised $250 million for the museum during her time there.
The Smithsonian announced Chiu’s departure in April. Deputy Director Aaron Seeto will serve as interim director while the museum searches for a permanent replacement. Chiu starts at the Guggenheim on Tuesday.
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