Valerie Hillings, the director of the North Carolina Museum of Artwork (NCMA) in the US, has been appointed the inaugural director of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi forward of the museum’s opening later this 12 months.
Hillings joined the NCMA in 2018 the place, in response to the official web site of the state of North Carolina, she presided over “important progress on the NCMA campuses in Raleigh and Winston-Salem and efficiently led the biggest non-public fundraising marketing campaign in NCMA historical past”. In response to its annual report, the museum welcomed 1.17 million guests throughout its two campuses within the fiscal 12 months 2025.
The long-awaited new Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, positioned on Saadiyat Island within the capital of the United Arab Emirates, will open on 11 December, introduced the Division of Tradition and Tourism-Abu Dhabi final week. Plans for the brand new mega museum had been initially unveiled in 2006; the associated fee is undisclosed. “Hillings will lead the museum’s strategic course and set up the establishment—one that’s rooted in Abu Dhabi and linked to the world, brings cultures collectively, evokes individuals, and celebrates artwork from the Nineteen Sixties to the current,” the Guggenheim stated in an announcement.
From 2009 to 2018, Hillings served as a curator and affiliate director of curatorial affairs for the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi venture, overseeing the museum’s assortment technique and acquisitions. She additionally organised exhibitions drawn from the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi assortment reminiscent of The Inventive Act on the Manarat Al Saadiyat venue in Abu Dhabi (2017), which included works by artists reminiscent of Rasheed Araeen and Mohammed Kazem.
“I’m honoured to return to Abu Dhabi to finish the once-in-a-lifetime journey of founding and opening Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, a museum developed within the United Arab Emirates by colleagues from each the area and around the globe,” Hillings stated in an announcement.
Stephanie Rosenthal, the director of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi venture, wrote on LinkedIn: “Since becoming a member of in 2022… I’ve had the privilege of main the inventive imaginative and prescient and holistic institutional growth of the museum, guiding its evolution from venture growth towards its inaugural opening… As Guggenheim Abu Dhabi prepares for its opening, I sit up for working carefully with Valerie all through this transition.”
András Szántó, a method adviser to museums, wrote on Instagram: “It’s noteworthy that every one senior posts within the Guggenheim community are actually held by girls—the pinnacle of the whole organisation and all 4 museum chiefs—a testomony to how far the museum world has come.” Mariët Westermann was appointed director and chief govt of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Basis in late 2023.
