As of April 1st, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington will have a new director: Kim Sajet (pronounced SAY-et), the current president and chief executive of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Ms. Sajet, who was born in Nigeria, raised in Australia, and is a citizen of the Netherlands, will be responsible for a staff of 65, an annual budget of about $9 million, and 21,000 objects that include Gilbert Stuart’s famous unfinished portrait of George Washington, photographs of Abraham Lincoln before his assassination and videos of more recent presidents.
Ms. Sajet, who developed two Web sites and a social communications program while at the historical society, is perhaps better known in the museum world for helping arrange the joint $68 million purchase of Thomas Eakins’ painting “The Gros Clinic,†when she worked at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Wayne Clough, who as secretary of the Smithsonian Institution oversees the National Portrait Gallery, said in a statement that he chose Ms. Sajet based on the recommendations of a search committee. “Kim is a solid manager who blends extensive art expertise with business and fundraising acumen,†he said. The previous director, Martin Sullivan, stepped down last June, and in the interim, the gallery has been under the leadership of a curator, Wendy Wick Reaves.
