Lynda Roscoe Hartigan (75), appointed director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM), knows the institution well, where she began her career in the 1970s. She is scheduled to take up her position on September 8, after a vacancy of nearly a year and a half. She succeeds Stephanie Stebich.
At SAAM, Lynda Roscoe Hartigan rose through the ranks to the position of Chief Curator, a position she held until 2003. She led internationally renowned acquisitions and programs, including working to establish the Joseph Cornell Study Center. She then joined the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, first as the institution’s first chief curator. In 2016, she became deputy director. After a brief stint at the Royal Ontario Museum, she returned to the Peabody Essex Museum, where she was named executive director in 2021, becoming the first woman to lead that institution.
The future director wants “shaping the next chapters of the museum” And “multiply the possibilities for the public to come into contact with American creativity”, making it a “essential benchmark for exploring and understanding a rapidly changing era” (1). Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III, for his part, highlights his experience as a visionary leader and his commitment to American art.
Since Trump’s re-election, the Smithsonian Institution has been in the crosshairs of the White House. A 2025 presidential decree asked the institution to ensure that its exhibitions conform to a vision called “patriotic education.” This climate has accentuated tensions around questions of diversity, memory and national narrative. Several Smithsonian museums have experienced leadership departures over the past two years. At the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, director Melissa Chiu announced her departure in 2026 to take over as head of the Guggenheim Museum in New York; his departure is the fourth resignation or ouster of a Smithsonian museum director in two years. At the National Museum of African American History and Culture, poet and curator Kevin Young first took an indefinite leave of absence, then ultimately resigned in 2025, amid increased political pressure on the institution. At the National Portrait Gallery, its director Kim Sajet left her position in 2025, two weeks after Donald Trump publicly claimed to have “fired” her, accusing her of supporting diversity policies; she finally submitted her resignation.
The SAAM, because it deals with American art in all its historical and social diversity, has not escaped these turbulences. Stephanie Stebich, director of the museum since 2017, was dismissed in the summer of 2024 after internal complaints about her management style and a degraded social climate. She was reassigned to a position as senior advisor to the Under Secretary for Museums at the Smithsonian, with no direct responsibility for the museum.
