Guggenheim's Cyra Levenson Named President of Yaddo

Cyra Levenson, deputy director of Learning and Engagement at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, will become the next president of Yaddo, the artist residency program in Saratoga Springs, New York. She succeeds Elaina Richardson, who led the nonprofit for 26 years.

"For 100 years Yaddo has been dedicated to creative people, to practice and to the magic that happens in community," Levenson said in a statement. "Artists have a unique ability to see what doesn't yet exist and to metabolize what is happening in the world in ways that others can digest and gain nourishment from."

The appointment places a museum educator with a Guggenheim portfolio at the head of one of America's oldest residencies, a century after its founding.

Rose B. Simpson Receives Santa Fe Mayor's Award

Artist Rose B. Simpson has received the Santa Fe Mayor's 2026 Award for Excellence in the Arts. The award recognizes her discipline-spanning practice and her "leadership, mentorship, and service to emerging generations of artists." Simpson lives and works in Santa Clara Pueblo and has long advocated for Indigenous cultural life.

In a 2025 opinion piece for Hyperallergic, she decried President Trump's efforts to defund Santa Fe's Institute of American Indian Arts, of which she is an alum and trustee. "I believe in the power of offering Indigenous people opportunity and space for investigation — both personal and communal," Simpson wrote. "I believe in the power of collective strength to lift the voice of our people, to claim our rightful position as leaders of creativity and aesthetic expression."

Ann Temkin Steps Down at MoMA

Ann Temkin, the Museum of Modern Art's longtime chief curator of Painting and Sculpture, will step down from the role in January, the New York Times reported. She will remain at MoMA in a newly created advisory role, leading programming for the museum's 100th anniversary in 2029.

Appointments Across the Field

Eva Respini and Sirish Rao have been named co-CEOs of the Vancouver Art Gallery. Respini will also serve as chief curator, and Rao as executive director. The museum's previous director and CEO, Anthony Kiendl, departed in spring 2025, months after the institution scrapped plans for a new building due to rising costs.

Diné artist and composer Raven Chacon is now represented by Sikkema Malloy Jenkins. Laeh Glenn has joined the roster of Jessica Silverman gallery.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum has appointed Colin Fanning as its new curator of Craft. The role will focus on acquisitions and exhibitions of craft and "maker culture" at the museum's Renwick Gallery in Washington, DC.

Acquisitions

The Bronx Museum acquired Zoë Pulley's "Elegance No. 1" (2026) from Superposition Gallery's booth at last week's Armory Show, winning the fair's inaugural Bronx Museum Acquisition Prize. Works by Lizania Cruz, Joshua Nazario, and Theresa Weber were selected for the Pérez Art Museum Miami Acquisition Prize.

The Dia Art Foundation has acquired Mira Schendel's "Still Waves of Probability" (1969). The Museum of Modern Art has acquired "Effluvia" and "Wake" by Joiri Minaya, both from her Divergences (2022) series.

A Lichtenstein Retrospective with an Artist as Co-Curator

A major retrospective of Roy Lichtenstein opens at the Whitney Museum of American Art next week with an unexpected co-curator: Venezuelan-American artist Alex Da Corte, best known for his video art and installations at celebrity and consumer culture. On October 29, Da Corte will present this year's Walter Annenberg Lecture at the museum to discuss his engagement with Lichtenstein as both artist and curator.

In an interview for the New York Times, Da Corte told critic and Hyperallergic contributor Aruna D'Souza that despite the ubiquity of Lichtenstein's work, he "had never thought about it in a close way."

"So, for me, it felt urgent to ask, as an artist, how would I want my work to be considered and reconsidered when everyone thinks they know everything about it?" Da Corte said.

His question now hangs over the Whitney's galleries. How a practicing artist re-reads one of Pop's most familiar figures may set a precedent for who gets to curate the canon next.