With its board having abruptly ousted its director earlier this month, the Philadelphia Art Museum has already found in a new leader in Daniel H. Weiss, the former president and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Weiss left the Met in 2023, having helped lead that New York institution for eight years. Since then, he has served as a professor and a senior adviser to the provost for the arts at Johns Hopkins University, the Baltimore school whose graduate art history program Weiss attended and formerly chaired.
He begins as director and CEO of the Philadelphia Art Museum on December 1, according to an announcement by the institution on Friday. That announcement said that Weiss would “guide the art museum through at least 2028, providing stability for staff, stakeholders, and the community.”
“The Philadelphia Art Museum is one of America’s great cultural treasures, with an extraordinary collection, a dedicated staff, and deep connections to its community,” Weiss said in a statement. “It is a privilege and an honor to serve during this important moment, and I look forward to working with the Board, staff, and stakeholders to ensure the art museum continues its vital mission and advances its strategic priorities.”
Controversy over the sudden dismissal of Sasha Suda, the museum’s previous director and CEO, will hang in the background of Weiss’s appointment, though her departure was not mentioned in the institution’s release.
Suda reportedly received an email on November 4 that she was being terminated for “cause,” without details on what the cause was. She had led the museum since 2022, and has since sued the museum, alleging that board members falsely accused her of “misusing Museum funds for personal gain,” as her lawsuit put it. An investigation at the museum brought by the trustees reportedly centered around her salary.
Her dismissal came not long after the museum rebranded from the Philadelphia Museum of Art to the Philadelphia Art Museum. Though the museum’s new acronym is officially PhAM, it has been widely parodied online as PhArt.
The museum has provided few comments on Suda’s departure other than one sent to the press following her lawsuit, which the institution characterized as being “without merit.”
Suda alleged that she had butted heads with Ellen Caplan, the museum’s board chair, who also did not address Suda’s dismissal on Friday.
In a statement, Caplan said, “We are extraordinarily fortunate to have someone of Dan Weiss’s caliber and experience step into this critical role. Dan’s proven track record of museum leadership, his deep understanding of the field, and his ability to navigate complex institutional challenges make him ideally suited to provide stability and strategic direction during this critical period for the art museum.”
