Gardner Museum Appoints Peggy Fogelman as New Director

Photo by Stephanie Berger provided

Following an eight-month international search, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum announced today that Peggy Fogelman, a museum professional with decades of experience, will succeed Anne Hawley as its new director.

Hawley will step down after a 26-year tenure at the end of the year, and Fogelman will officially take over on January 11, 2016.

“I am overjoyed to be entrusted with leading the Gardner, a unique and treasured museum where visitors feel so closely connected to the collection,” said Fogelman in a press release. “Being located in this creative and intellectual hub makes the potential enormously exciting as we continue to reach the next generation of museum-goers. It is truly a privilege to apply all my experience to a place that is beloved by so many.”

Fogelman will arrive at the Gardner fresh off a stint as director of collections at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City, an institution founded to house a private collection much like the Gardner. Although she served as an acting director at the Morgan earlier this year—in addition to her regular duties of overseeing eight curatorial departments, conservation, registration, and 16 to 20 annual exhibitions—Fogelman’s upcoming position at the Gardner will be her first permanent directorship at a major museum.

Fogelman holds a Bachelor of Arts from Johns Hopkins University and a Master of Arts from Brown University. She began her career at the J. Paul Getty Museum in California, working in both the curatorial and education departments before relocating to Massachusetts in 2007 to serve as the director of education and interpretation at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. In 2009, she was hired as the chairman of education at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she spent four years before taking on her current position at the Morgan.

“Peggy comes to us with a seasoned perspective, honed by working at some of the nation’s finest museums, and with a freshness of spirit that makes being part of the Gardner leadership so rewarding,” said longtime Gardner trustee Barbara Hostetter, who chaired the search committee for the new director.

While departing director Anne Hawley hasn’t yet announced her next steps, she has previously hinted that she would like to remain close to the arts.

“I will be looking at opportunities to work directly now with artists and art projects without having the institutional responsibilities,” she told Boston in March, also sharing her hopes to study music, pick up another language, and spend more time with her husband.