Adam Weinberg leaves the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York after two decades as director, the New York Times reports. Scott Rothkopf, who is currently the institution’s senior deputy director and chief curator for the Nancy and Steve Crown family, will take over the reins from Weinberg on Nov. 1. During his tenure, Weinberg led the museum through its move from its longtime Brutalist digs of the Upper East Side. to his current airy and modern home in New York’s trendy Meatpacking District. It also withstood the Covid-19 crisis, which saw the museum temporarily close and Fire personal, and the rise of Black Lives Matter, which led to struggles as the institution attempted to embrace diversity.
Workers also unionized at the museum during Weinberg’s tenure; The union concluded a contract with management this week. Additionally, Weinberg steered the museum through the tumultuous departure of vice-chairman Warren Kanders, spurred in part by a article in this magazine highlighting his connection to tear gas manufacturer Safariland.
THE Time noted that the move is not unexpected, given that Weinberg is sixty-eight and Rothkopf forty-six. The succession reflects a generational changing of the guard taking place in the art world, with conservative white male baby boomers yielding to members of Gen X or Millennials, as exemplified by Christopher Bedford, forty-five years old. be chosen to succeed Neal Benezra, sixty-eight, at the San Francisco Art Museum or Sasha Suda, forty-one, exploited to lead the Philadelphia Museum of Art after the resignation of seventy-year-old Timothy Rub.
Calling Weinberg a “unique achiever” and Rothkopf an “agent of change,” Fern Kaye Tessler, chair of Whitney’s board of directors, told the Time“We have the opportunity to have a smooth transition.”
Rothkopf, Harvard graduate, former art forum editor, left the magazine in 2009 to become curator at the Whitney; he rose through the ranks with several successive promotions, becoming deputy director in 2018. Rothkopf is known for his close relationships with artists and has been instrumental in diversifying the museum’s staff. Among the exhibitions he has curated at the Whitney are glimpses of the work of Jeff Koons, Jasper Johns and Laura Owens.
“One of the benefits of an internal succession like this is that we can continue the work we’ve done with fairness and inclusion – with our community and the city in mind,” he told the Time. “We have a great team of curators and I’ve hired most of them, so it’s not like someone comes in and says, ‘How can I change this? How can I own this? »
