Melissa Chiu, new director of the Guggenheim Museum, talks about the role of culture in a time of turmoil

Melissa Chiu, longtime director of the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, announced in April that she would be leaving for a new role as director of New York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. As Chiu concludes her successful tenure at the Hirshhorn, one of 19 Smithsonian museums, the Trump administration has continued to target the Smithsonian Institution in an effort to “remove improper ideology” from all aspects of the organization, accusing it of political bias. The federal government recently proposed cutting the institution’s funding by 11% to its lowest prospective funding level since 2020, as Artforum reported. However, this climate for cultural organizations did not deter Chiu from advocating for the Hirshhorn, which she’s done since her start in 2014. Under Chiu’s leadership, attendance tripled, fundraising increased, the museum’s permanent collections expanded, and the groundwork for the Sculpture Garden revitalization, reimagined by the architect and photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto, was laid. Fast Company recently spoke with Chiu about why working at the Guggenheim is her dream job, reflections on her decade-plus at the Hirshhorn, and the important role th…