Kim Sajet, the former director of the Smithsonian ’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington who resigned in June following pressure from President Donald Trump, has landed a prestigious new post: the Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM), one of the largest and most important museums in the United States, with a collection ranging from the Renaissance to the 21st century, has indeed chosen her as its new director. Before coming to Milwaukee, she led NPG for 12 years, during which she organized innovative exhibitions and public programs that helped update the institution’s image. Under Sajet’s leadership, museum visits doubled and major capital improvements were made. She has also raised more than $85 million for the gallery’s activities and assets.
Born in 1965 in Nigeria to Dutch parents, Sajet has resided in the United States for 30 years, after childhood and youth spent in Australia. Prior to directing the National Portrait Gallery, she was President and CEO of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Vice President and Deputy Director of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and Director of Corporate Relations of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She has also directed two museums in Victoria, Australia, and has close ties to museums in the Netherlands. Sajet holds a bachelor’s degree and MBA from the University of Melbourne, a master’s degree in Art History from Bryn Mawr College, and a doctorate from Georgetown University. She is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the International Council of Museums (ICOM) and the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD), where she served on the board of directors from 2021 to 2025. Former host of the PORTRAITS podcast, nominated for a Webby Award in 2025, Sajet is currently finishing a book with Princeton University Press on early photography.
Sajet joins MAM at a pivotal time, on the 50th anniversary of the Bradley Collection of Modern Art, a collection of nearly 400 modern masterpieces that transformed the museum and brought leading artists such as Vasily Kandinsky, Pablo Picasso, Mark Rothko, and Andy Warhol to Milwaukee, establishing the museum as a center for modernism. The new director will take office beginning Sept. 22, 2025.
“MAM’s ability to attract talent of the caliber of Kim Sajet, who is among a handful of world-renowned, values-rooted museum leaders, is a testament to the excellent reputation and collections represented by the museum and its role as a cultural pillar of our community and the nation,” said Andy Nunemaker, Chair of the Milwaukee Art Museum Board of Trustees. “This moment represents a unique opportunity to welcome a leader who can unleash the museum’s full potential and promote its vision of connecting people with art and each other, creating experiences that inspire, spark curiosity and bring joy, while sharing the museum’s story on the national and international stage.”
Sajet said she is excited to lead a museum with a significant international collection in one of America’s most important cities. “From the moment I first started talking to the search committee,” she commented, "I was struck by the passion everyone had for the museum and how they saw it as an integral part of what makes Milwaukee a world-class city. The overall atmosphere is entrepreneurial, culturally vibrant, and refreshingly authentic. This sense of experimentation is also an important part of the museum’s collecting and exhibition history. Since 1982, for example, the Currents series has provided an important platform for contemporary artists such as Cindy Sherman, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Isaac Julien, and Lawrence Weiner, whose careers the museum launched, and for international artists such as Damien Hirst and Idris Kahn, who had their first U.S. exhibition here. I am eager to deepen this commitment to living artists and also to explore the educational opportunities that flow from the art and design of the past. The museum itself is splendid, and I want to invite everyone across the country to see for themselves what a special place this is."
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| Kim Sajet, "fired" by Trump, is now the new director of the Milwaukee Art Museum |
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