Overview
- Hartigan, appointed Tuesday, will take over as director on September 8.
- She will step down from the Peabody Essex Museum at the end of June, and PEM named Kurt Steinberg acting executive director starting July 1.
- The museum veteran previously spent about two decades at SAAM, rising to chief curator and expanding holdings in folk art, work by Black artists, and scholarship on Joseph Cornell.
- The appointment comes as the Trump administration reviews museum content and has threatened the 62 percent of Smithsonian funding that comes from federal appropriations.
- Leadership churn across the Smithsonian, including departures at the National Portrait Gallery and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, heightens the need for stable direction at SAAM.