Lisa Phillips, director of New York’s New Museum, will retire after more than 25 years in the post, the New York Times reported Thursday.
The museum is currently undergoing a 62,000-square-foot expansion that had been expected to open this fall, though no inauguration date has been announced. It is the second major expansion Phillips, 71, has overseen since becoming director in 1999.
Of her decision to step down, she told the Times, “It’s just the right time for me to step down.”
During her tenure, the New Museum mounted a wide range of surveys and retrospectives, including those for Wangechi Mutu, Pipilotti Rist, Rosemarie Trockel, Carroll Dunham, Chris Burden, and Peter Saul. The museum also staged a series of influential group shows, among them 2007’s “Unmonumental: The Object in the 21st Century,” focused on the changing face of sculpture, and 2011’s “Ostalgia,” about art under the Soviet Bloc.
In addition, the New Museum Triennial, launched in 2010 under Phillips, has become a major platform for spotting rising talent. Its next edition is scheduled for next year.
Her leadership, however, was not without controversy. In 2010 the museum drew criticism for presenting a show of works owned by Dakis Jouannou, a trustee. Phillips also faced criticism from staff who said her salary—currently about $900,000, according to the museum’s recent tax filings—was too high.
Around the time New Museum workers unionized in 2019, staff alleged that management had tried to prevent the group from forming. Reflecting on that period, Phillips told the Times this week, “At first, I felt that it was antithetical to the culture of the museum. But then I began to see that this is very much a new generation speaking, and we needed to listen.”
Phillips has emphasized her role in enlarging the museum both physically and financially. She oversaw its relocation to the Bowery in 2007, greatly expanding its footprint. She also added the incubator New Inc to its programming and brought Rhizome, the art-and-tech organization, under the museum’s aegis.
Before taking charge at the New Museum in 1999, she had been a curator at the Whitney Museum. She was the institution’s second director after founder Marcia Tucker.
Phillips is the second major New York museum director to announce her departure in recent years. Glenn Lowry of the Museum of Modern Art announced last year that he would soon step down, with Christophe Cherix set to lead that institution.
The New Museum will soon launch a search for her successor as it works toward a plan to grow its endowment by $50 million by 2027, according to the Times.
