MoMA Director Glenn Lowry to Step Down in 2025
'It's the right moment to think about the future of the museum and I just thought, carpe diem,' Lowry told The New York Times.
Glenn Lowry at MoMA, 2015. Photo: Peter Ross via Wikimedia Commons.
Glenn Lowry, the long-time director of New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), will leave his post in September 2025.
Appointed in 1994, Lowry led the museum through significant changes, including a merger with Queens-based contemporary art space MoMA PS1 in 2000, expansions that more than doubled gallery sizes, and increased the museum's endowment from $200 million to $1.7 billion.
Lowry, who turns 70 this month, said he left 'by mutual agreement'. His contract could have been renewed for another five years, Marie-Josée Kravis, chair of the museum's board, told The New York Times.
'All the things I set out to do 30 years ago are either accomplished or in play in a very positive way,' Lowry told The Times, noting 'a sea change both in terms of race, ethnicity, and age' since he started.
When Lowry took on the role in 1995—first offered to museum directors such as John Walsh of the Getty, James Wood of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Nicholas Serota of the Tate—he faced many challenges.
Lowry brought his experience leading Toronto's Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), where he oversaw a significant expansion, managed public funding cuts, and lead successful public campaigns.
At MoMA, he was tasked with raising over $100 million to support the museum's endowment, finding a building in Manhattan to house its contemporary art collection, and sustaining morale amid museum staff following union negotiations and protests over low wages.
Lowry led controversial projects such as the demolition of the American Folk Art Museum between 2001 and 2004 onto whose site MoMA expanded. He diversified the museum's curatorial departments to include media and performance, initiated research initiatives into contemporary art practice, and conceived a fellowship programme with Studio Museum in Harlem for emerging artists alongside Thelma Golden—one of many names speculated to replace Lowry.
Museum of Modern Art recently held exhibitions for Joan Jonas, LaToya Ruby Frazier, and Wolfgang Tillmans. A survey of work by German artist Thomas Schütte will open later this month. —[O]
