Tim and American Furniture and Philadelphia Museum of Art rub
Timothy Rub Will Step Downward at Philadelphia Museum of Art
As managing director, he oversaw Frank Gehry's reimagining of the historic 1928 edifice and dealt with an institution reeling from reports of abusive behavior on the part of museum managers.
Timothy Rub, 69, the director and chief executive officer of the Philadelphia Museum of Fine art, on Friday announced that he will retire early in 2022, after xiii years at the captain of ane of the about prestigious fine art museums in the country.
In 2009, he joined the museum following the sudden expiry of his predecessor, Anne d'Harnoncourt, from whom he inherited a $500 million expansion and renovation project, designed by Frank Gehry. Rub, who started his tenure during a global financial crunch, is catastrophe his role during a global health crisis that saw the museum shuttered for several months.
"It has been a great honor to serve as the director of one of this state'southward finest art museums," Rub said in a statement. "It has besides been a privilege to piece of work with a talented and dedicated staff and with a group of trustees."
But over the last 18 months, employees have questioned Rub's leadership after several internal issues spilled into public view. Last yr, a sometime manager was defendant of harassment and another of physical corruption, leading government officials to criticize the museum. Employees unionized last August, citing the chief executive'south struggle to address gender and disinterestedness issues.
"If I had to turn back the clock, I would have as well recognized sooner that nosotros needed to focus at the same time — and with equal vigor — on the museum'southward internal culture," Rub said, responding to questions through a spokesman. "We're doing that work now, and the museum will be ameliorate off for it."
A Times investigation in 2020 found that 3 employees had reported their concerns to the Philadelphia museum about Joshua Helmer, an education managing director defendant by female person employees of harassment, as early every bit 2016. Only he remained with the establishment until 2018, when he resigned for reasons that have not been disclosed.
Months later, Helmer resurfaced as the director of the Erie Art Museum. Allegations of harassment arose again when a college student interning in the galleries said she felt unsafe after rejecting his flirtations. A board dismissed her concerns, but afterward forced Helmer out of his chore following the Times study. He has declined to discuss accounts of his treatment of women or his relationships with them, though he said he always followed museum policy.
Rub apologized to his staff for his mistakes in dealing with the fallout.
He said Fri that when he took the task, he expected to stay well-nigh x years, "simply with the timetable for both our construction project and our majuscule campaign extended, I felt that it was important to stay the class." And, the pandemic played a role. "We've too reached a point — after nearly a year-and-a-half of dealing with the challenges created by the pandemic — where nosotros can see that things are, indeed, getting better."
Other important leaders have left the museum in the past year. In September, Gail Harrity, a longtime president and chief operating officeholder, resigned. The deputy director of collections and exhibitions, Alice Beamesderfer, has too stepped downwardly.
"We wish him well," Adam Rizzo, the union'south president, said in an interview Friday. Other employees said that Rub's annunciation came as a surprise to staff.
Phase one of the museum's expensive overhaul had but recently finished, carrying a price tag of $233 1000000, just every bit the institution battled through the economic challenges of the pandemic, temporarily airtight its galleries, appear a 20 percent reduction in staff and anticipated a $6.5 million budget gap.
In an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer, the chair of the museum'southward lath of trustees, Leslie Anne Miller, said that there is some outstanding debt on the structure projection. She too told the newspaper that Rub had confronted problems at the institution.
"He has rolled upwardly his sleeves and begun to bargain with the problems, intensely, systematically and constructively," Miller said. "While we have by no means solved those issues, I call back it fair to say that we accept fabricated significant progress in beginning to address them."
Final year, executives began implementing a series of measures to improve the work environment. The board and staff members had multifariousness training and admission to an anonymous hotline for reporting misconduct. In August, Alphonso Atkins Jr. will begin as the museum's first managing director of diverseness, disinterestedness, inclusion and access.
Rub will officially step down from the museum on Jan. 30, 2022, and the board is already initiating a search for his replacement.
"This is ane more change for an institution that is rapidly changing," said Christina Vassallo, manager of the nearby Fabric Workshop and Museum, explaining that the Philadelphia museum hasn't established a dialogue with neighboring cultural institutions in contempo years. "Whoever they notice to fill this office will hopefully lead the museum into the 21st century."
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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/30/arts/design/timothy-rub-philadelphia-museum-of-art.html
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