BRETT LITTMAN STEPS DOWN AS DIRECTOR OF NOGUCHI MUSEUM
Brett Littman, who since 2018 has served as the director of the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City, New York, has left his role at the institution. Deputy director Jennifer Lorch will step in as interim director until the board of trustees names a successor. No reason was given for Littman’s departure. The Noguchi Museum is the first US institution that was established, designed, and installed by a living artist to showcase their own oeuvre.
“On behalf of the board of Trustees, we would like to extend our gratitude to Brett for his contributions to the museum,” said board cochairs Spencer Bailey and Susan Kessler. “Brett leaves the Museum in a strong position. We wish him great success in his future endeavors.”
Littman’s departure comes as the Noguchi Museum undertakes a major expansion of its Queens campus that will see a new 6,000-square-foot building designed by Büro Koray Duman as well as the renovation and restoration of the sculptor’s studio and apartment. Originally slated to open to the public in 2022, the expansion remains in progress with no official opening date as of yet.
Littman, who succeeded Jenny Dixon as director of the Noguchi Museum, had previously served as executive director of the Drawing Center in Manhattan, and before that was deputy director of MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, co–executive director of Brooklyn nonprofit Dieu Donné, and associate director of UrbanGlass, also in brooklyn. He was awarded the title of Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 2017.
At the time of his 2018 hiring by the Noguchi Museum, Malcolm C. Nolen, then the institution’s board chair, had lauded him as “a prominent and valued member of New York’s cultural community [who] will play a critically important role as we articulate and implement the next phase of the museum’s development.” Nolen further noted, “I know that I speak for my fellow trustees when I say how thrilled we are that Brett will bring his rich experience in both the everyday workings of a museum and the larger role that museums play in our society to his work at the Noguchi Museum.”
