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[NEWS] Longtime Philadelphia Museum of Art Director Timothy Rub to Retire
August 04, 2021
Exterior of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Photo by Ben Davis.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art has announced that Timothy Rub will step down as director and chief executive of the institution on January 30, 2022. During the course of his 13-year tenure, Rub was responsible for overseeing a major renovation project that opened to acclaim earlier this year. Under Rub’s leadership, the museum expanded its reach to gain a broader, more diversified audience. Rub also oversaw the completion this past spring of the museum’s four-year, Frank Gehry–led renovation and expansion; costing $233 million, the project gave the museum ninety thousand square feet of new gallery space while sensitively responding to its original 1928 Beaux-Arts architecture and was widely lauded upon its presentation to the public.
Over the past few years, however, workers at the museum have spoken out against Rub, claiming that he mishandled allegations of sexual harassment among his staff and reacted inappropriately to Black Lives Matter protests.
In a closed-door meeting, Rub reportedly apologized to hundreds of Philadelphia Museum of Art employees for mishandling the allegations of harassment and the subsequent fallout.
Timothy Rub, the director and chief executive officer of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Photo: Elizabeth Leitzell.
n August of last year, an overwhelming majority of employees voted to unionize, making the institution home to one of the largest museum unions in the United States. The vote was held amid calls for greater accountability from leadership and increased equity in hiring.
Earlier that year, a number of Black employees sharply criticized Rub and president Gail Harrity for a letter sent to staff that condemned the largely peaceful Black Lives Matter protests as “compromised by the looting and destruction of property.” The letter fueled tensions at the century-old institution, which had become a backdrop for thousands of protestors demanding justice for Black Americans killed by the police in the city.
Since then, leadership has begun implementing a series of initiatives intended to improve the workplace culture, including diversity training and an anonymous hotline for reporting misbehavior.
The Board of Trustees will immediately initiate an international search for Rub’s successor. To ensure a smooth transition, after stepping down at the end of January, Rub will continue to serve the institution on a consulting basis until the museum’s next director is in place. He will also serve as co-curator for the upcoming exhibition Sean Scully: The Shape of Ideas, when it opens at the museum next April.
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