International Art World Sees Major Leadership Changes at Moderna Museet, British Museum, and Art Dubai

A wave of leadership changes has swept through the international art world, with several key institutions announcing new directors. Iris Müller-Westermann, currently senior curator at Moderna Museet in Stockholm since 1997, will become director of Moderna Museet Malmö in January 2017, succeeding John Peter Nilsson, who remains a curator in Stockholm under Daniel Birnbaum. Müller-Westermann has curated exhibitions such as Louise Bourgeois and Munch by Himself, and previously worked at the Stenersen Museum in Oslo. In Dubai, Myrna Ayad, an art critic and consultant born in 1977, has been appointed director of Art Dubai, effective immediately, to lead the team for the fair's eleventh edition. She succeeds Antonia Carver, who will now direct Art Jameel while remaining on the fair's board. In Germany, Marion Ackermann will become director of the Dresden State Collections on November 1, 2016, leaving her post at the art collection of North Rhine-Westphalia. She replaces Hartwig Fischer, a German art historian who will direct the British Museum in London. Fischer previously led the Folkwang Museum in Essen and began his career at the Kunstmuseum Basel, where he worked for about five years.