Caroline Baumann, the acting director of Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York, has been officially given the chief job, the museum announced on Thursday.
“She has been key in the museum’s growing success over the years and has been especially adept at forming substantivepartnerships in New York, in Washington, across the nation and, indeed, around the world,†the Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough said in announcing the appointment.
The museum, housed in the Carnegie Mansion at East 91st Street and Fifth Avenue, has been undergoing a $54-million expansion and is set to re-open in the fall of 2014. Ms. Baumann has been at Cooper-Hewitt since 2001, and took over as acting director last year after the death of the previous director, Bill Moggridge.
“We’re rolling out an extraordinary plan for a vibrant future and establishing Cooper-Hewitt as the Smithsonian’s design lens on the world,†Ms. Baumann said in a statement. “The new Cooper-Hewitt visitor experienceâ€"physical and digitalâ€"will be a global first, a transformative force for all in 2014 and beyond, impacting the way people think about and understand design.â€
The chairman of the seven-member search committee, Richard Kurin Smithsonian’s Under Secretary for History, Art, and Culture, said that Ms. Baumann had the panel’s unanimous support.
