SALEM — When Lynda Roscoe Hartigan becomes the first woman CEO at the Peabody Essex Museum this August, it will be a homecoming for her.
Hartigan, who will start Aug. 23, is the former chief curator, having been appointed in 2003 and rising to deputy director in 2016, will become the next Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo executive director and CEO of the nation’s oldest continually operating museum.
Last summer, she left Salem for a position as deputy director for collections & research and chief innovation officer at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada’s largest and most visited museum.
But when Brian P. Kennedy, the previous CEO, departed abruptly last December after just 17 months on the job, with no reason given, nor any indication of where he was going next, PEM launched a four-month search before circling back to Hartigan.
Robert M. Monk Jr., the museum’s chief of facilities operations, planning, and security, has led the museum on an interim basis while the executive search committee sought Kennedy’s replacement.
Hartigan was deputy director under longtime PEM leader Dan Monroe, who added more than 270,000 square feet of new facilities and increased its endowment from $23 million to more than $500 million. However, she did not get the position after Monroe retired in 2019, when the museum opted instead to name Kennedy his successor.
Now, in returning to the museum after a year’s absence, she brings unparalleled organizational experience, a track record of excellence, and a progressive vision to advance PEM as a vital and positive force in people’s lives, said Stuart W. Pratt, chair of PEM’s Board of Trustees.
“As the museum emerges from the pandemic and what has been the most extraordinary chapter in its 221-year history, Lynda’s leadership will provide a collaborative, confident spirit and an expansive vision for our staff, supporters, and community at large,” Pratt said.
During her first stint at PEM, Hartigan led an award-winning curatorial and exhibition program, and reimagined the museum’s exhibition, publishing, and collection strategies. She oversaw the interpretation and reinstallation of PEM’s 40,000-square-foot wing that opened in 2019 and helped develop and advance the museum’s collection stewardship, fundraising, education, digital, and global leadership initiatives.
“It is a tremendous honor to lead PEM, an organization whose focus on the potential of creativity, cultural understanding, and innovation are more relevant and needed than ever,” Hartigan said. “This is a pivotal moment for museums to stimulate conversation and connection with empathy and courage.
“I am passionate about ensuring that PEM welcomes all people to explore our shared humanity through the power of the arts and cultural expression,” she said.
Hartigan is a leading scholar on American artist Joseph Cornell, and specializes in American art, especially modern, folk, and Black artists, yielding numerous widely-recognized exhibitions and publications.
Before she joined PEM, Hartigan was chief curator of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., where she built internationally-recognized collections by American Black and folk artists and led a major acquisitions initiative for modern and contemporary art.
Hartigan holds a B.A. in art history from Bucknell University and an M.A. in art history from George Washington University, and attended the Getty Leadership Institute. Currently, she is a board member of the Association of Art Museum Curators.
Founded in 1799, PEM is the country’s oldest continuously operating museum. Its campus offers a varied and unique visitor experience with hands-on creativity zones, interactive opportunities and performance spaces. There are 22 noted historic structures on the grounds, including Yin Yu Tang, a 200-year-old Chinese house that is the only example of Chinese domestic architecture on display in the United States.
