Adam Weinberg, who took the helm at the Whitney Museum in 2003, will leave the institution on 31 October after a 20-year directorship. Scott Rothkopf, who currently serves as the museum’s chief deputy director and chief curator, will take over his position.
Weigberg’s tenure at the Whitney has been marked by both institutional changes and controversies. In 2015, the museum relocated from Manhattan’s Upper East Side to a new building designed by Renzo Piano in the Meatpacking District, considerably transforming the audience at a tourist-friendly location. In 2017, the first Whitney Biennial hosted at the new site sparked widespread protest over Dana Schutz’s painting that displayed the body of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old African American boy tortured and lynched to death in 1955.
Joining the Whitney in 2009 as curator, Rothkopf served as the associate director of programmes and chief curator, before taking on the role of senior deputy director in 2018. His curatorial involvement at the museum includes the 2014 Jeff Koons retrospective, Laura Owens’s solo exhibition in 2017 and the Jasper Johns retrospective on view from 2021 to 2022.
‘I am tremendously grateful to the Board for the opportunity to further serve this extraordinary institution and to build on Adam’s remarkable legacy… We’re extremely well poised for the next chapter, which promises to be more vital and relevant than ever,’ Rofthkopf said in a statement.
