MARBLEHEAD — For Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, departing the Peabody Essex Museum for one of the most prestigious positions in the museum world is both bittersweet and exciting.
Hartigan, a Marblehead resident and the executive director and CEO of the Peabody Essex Museum, has been named the Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, effective Sept. 8.
She describes this transition as both personal and professionally meaningful.
“Bittersweet, obviously, because I’ve invested a lot of time and effort into the Peabody Essex Museum with its terrific staff and board,” Hartigan said in an interview. “And excited because there’s a great opportunity that lies ahead. After all, I did start my career at the Smithsonian American Art Museum … I’ve come full circle to lead that organization where I got my start.”
That sense of coming home is central to Hartigan’s next chapter.
Hartigan returns to the Smithsonian, where she began as an intern while in graduate school and eventually rose to become chief curator, helping expand the museum’s representation of modern, contemporary, and self-taught artists.
“Lynda is a visionary leader whose career reflects a deep commitment to American art, thoughtful scholarship, and public engagement,” Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III said in the museum’s press release. “Having begun her career at the Smithsonian, she returns with deep curatorial knowledge and substantial experience that will guide the museum in the years ahead.”
Hartigan echoed that enthusiasm in the same press release, saying, “The Smithsonian American Art Museum and its Renwick Gallery is a place where art encourages meaningful dialogue and connection for audiences from the local to the international. I am honored to help shape the museum’s next chapters.”
While Hartigan’s next move is grabbing national attention, she was quick to focus on what she has cherished most in Salem. When asked what she has loved most about leading PEM, Hartigan laughed at the impossibility of choosing.
“Oh my God — you’re going to ask me to choose among the members of the family,” she said.
Then she answered without hesitation.
“First and foremost, I have really appreciated the opportunity to work with an incredibly talented and committed staff,” she said. “That makes all the difference in the world when you have a really supportive and energized and committed work culture.”
She pointed to the museum’s acclaimed exhibitions, its strategic vision, and the work of steadying the institution after the pandemic.
“When I left the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 2003, I left as its chief curator, and I came into PEM in 2003 as PEM’s first chief curator,” she said.
In 2020, she left PEM to serve as deputy director for collections and research and the first chief innovation officer at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. The Royal Ontario Museum is a museum dedicated to art, culture, and the sciences in Canada.
“I came back to PEM in August of 2021 to be the director,” she said. “At that point in time, so many museums — including PEM — were having hard times because of COVID. To really work with people who were committed to stabilizing and moving the museum forward has been a real honor.”
Hartigan’s tenure included major growth for PEM, such as the interpretation and installation of the museum’s new wing, and helped expand its exhibition program, introducing major collecting and programming initiatives in photography, American art, contemporary art, and global fashion.
As executive director and CEO, she led a strategic plan that strengthened the museum’s standing as both an international cultural institution and a key community resource, while driving growth through collections stewardship, fundraising, education, digital innovation, and global initiatives.
Throughout the conversation, Hartigan returned repeatedly to one theme: the public role of art.
“The museum really has this inspiring mission about celebrating creativity as a nourishing force in people’s lives,” she said. “That has evolved from my own personal belief as a museum professional that museums are for the public good.”
It is a philosophy, she said, that she hopes people carry with them, whether they visit museums close to home or around the world.
“Take the time to appreciate creativity,” she said. “It is a source of inspiration and hope and insight that we can all draw on.”
She offered a reflection on why art matters.
“I’m an art nerd,” she said with a laugh. “And I believe art can really connect us and help us understand what we can share as opposed to focusing on what might divide us.”
That spirit, she suggested, will guide her in Washington.
The Smithsonian American Art Museum — home to the nation’s largest collection of New Deal art, significant contemporary craft holdings, and expansive American collections — has increasingly emphasized contemporary and media arts in recent years. Hartigan will now help shape its future.
And for someone who began there as an intern, the symbolism is hard to miss.
“It’s poignant,” she said. “I’ve come full circle.”
The new role means Hartigan and her husband will be leaving Marblehead after nearly two decades.
“We’ve lived there for almost 20 years,” she said. “We will move to the Washington, D.C. area. We just don’t know what that looks like yet.”
What she will miss about Marblehead came easily.
“My husband and I have really enjoyed living in a seaside community. We both love the ocean,” she said. “It’s a beautiful, well-established community. We will definitely miss that.”
And then came a loving roll call of favorite local haunts: “Shubie’s, French + Italian, Crosby’s and C’est La Vie,” she said, laughing. “I’m sure some merchants are going to be sad to see me go because I have supported local businesses.”
Hartigan added there are even more Marblehead staples she has treasured through the years, including the Fish Market, Orama’s, Ace Hardware, and Java Sun — nods she made sure not to leave out.
Together, they sketch a portrait not just of a museum leader, but of a neighbor who embraced the town’s small businesses, waterfront charm, and everyday rituals.
She joked that she has one lingering wish for Marblehead.
“I do wish it still had a good shoe store,” she said.
For Marblehead and the North Shore, Hartigan’s departure marks the loss of a visible cultural leader, a champion of the arts and, by her own admission, a devoted patron of local shops and eateries.
Her parting message to the community was less about her career than about what she hopes people continue to find in museums.
“Creativity is a nourishing force,” she said again.
And perhaps a fitting one for a curator returning to where it all began.
As Hartigan prepares to trade Marblehead’s harbor for Washington’s monuments, she leaves with gratitude — for PEM, for the community she has called home, and for a profession she still clearly sees as a public trust.
And in many ways, this is just the beginning.
