What to know about Kim Sajet, the new director of the Milwaukee Art Museum

The Milwaukee Art Museum made an international splash Sept. 3 when it announced Kim Sajet as its new director. She takes the reins Sept. 22.

Sajet had been the high-profile director of the National Portrait Gallery, an arm of the Smithsonian Institution, for a dozen years until June, when she resigned that post after President Donald J. Trump tried to fire her.

“I left (the National Portrait Gallery) because I didn’t want to make the story about me,” Sajet said Sept. 2 during a joint video interview with MAM board chairman Andy Nunemaker.

Nunemaker and fellow MAM board members see Washington’s loss as Milwaukee’s potential gain. Impressed with Sajet, the MAM search committee decided right after their second meeting with her to offer her the job, Nunemaker said.

“Those of us on the (MAM) board are actually thrilled with the timing of how that played out. We’re very excited for Milwaukee,” he said.

Here’s a look at Sajet’s background, her time at and departure from the National Portrait Gallery, the opportunities and challenges she inherits at the Milwaukee Art Museum, and what her priorities at MAM might be.

What is new Milwaukee Art Museum leader Kim Sajet’s background?

The adjective cosmopolitan only begins to describe Sajet, who has had important life experiences on four continents.

She was born in Nigeria to Dutch immigrant parents; her father was there for his paper business, she told The Guardian newspaper in 2024. When she was a little girl, her family moved to Australia, largely due to her father’s love of sailing, she told The Guardian. She grew up there and speaks with an Australian accent.

Her brother, who lives in the Netherlands, is intellectually disabled, deaf and autistic. One reason Sajet retains her Dutch citizenship is to make it as easy as possible for her to visit him. Earlier in life she worked with children with disabilities, an experience that has stoked her concern for accessibility in museums.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in art history from Australia’s University of Melbourne and an MBA from the Melbourne Business School. Later she earned a master’s degree in art history from Bryn Mawr College and a PhD in liberal studies from Georgetown University.

After six years leading two different art institutions in Australia, Sajet came to Philadelphia, where she worked first as director of corporate relations for the Philadelphia Museum of Art, then as senior vice president for the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, then for six years as president and CEO of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

In April 2013 Sajet was named director of the National Portrait Gallery, a position she held until she resigned in June.

What did Kim Sajet accomplish at the National Portrait Gallery?

In its statement announcing her hire, the Milwaukee Art Museum pointed out that Sajet raised more than $85 million for the National Portrait Gallery’s operations and endowment during her tenure there. National Portrait Gallery attendance doubled during her tenure, MAM noted.

Sajet was the first woman to lead the National Portrait Gallery. She encouraged a wide and cross-disciplinary view of what portraiture could be.

She worked to diversify the NPG collection, an effort that landed her on President Trump’s firing list.

Sajet also hosted the NPG’s podcast “Portraits.”

Did President Trump fire Kim Sajet?

As part of his takeover of Washington cultural institutions, President Trump said he fired her in May. The Smithsonian countered that it, not the president, had power over personnel decisions. Sajet then submitted her resignation, stating, “I believe that stepping aside is the best way to serve the institution I hold so deeply in my heart.”

In a phone interview with the New York Times, Sajet said she was neither bitter about leaving the NPG nor regretful about her efforts there.

“Throughout my career, I’ve been guided by the belief that knowledge is better than ignorance,” she told the Times. “Cultural diversity makes for a stronger nation, and democracy thrives when people engage with each other with mutual respect.”

What attracted Kim Sajet to the Milwaukee Art Museum?

In her Sept. 2 interview with the Journal Sentinel, Sajet cited the museum’s holdings, which she dubbed a “collection of collections,” including the Bradley Collection of 20th-century art, the museum’s substantial body of work by self-taught artists, and less widely known gems including MAM’s Haitian collection and its cluster of 16th- and 17th-century clocks.

She praised the museum’s Currents series, whch over the years has provided important early-career or first American shows for contemporary artists including Cindy Sherman, Damien Hirst and Idris Kahn.

She also lauded MAM’s curatorial staff and the architecture of the museum itself, including the now-iconic Calatrava addition.

What challenges does Kim Sajet face at the Milwaukee Art Museum?

Citing economic pressures, the museum reduced its staff earlier this year, with a total of eight positions affected either by layoffs or a reduction in pay and benefits. Also, several long-vacant roles were permanently eliminated. In a statement at the time, the museum pointed to sharply rising operational costs in the face of slower growth in revenue and philanthropic support.

MAM has made “fiscally responsible” tough decisions, Sajet said in her Sept. 2 interview with the Journal Sentinel.

As they emerge from the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, “museums around the world are really having to rethink how they do business,” she said. The old business model of simply having wealthy people write checks at the end of the financial year “doesn’t hold up anymore,” she said.

What are Kim Sajet’s first priorities at the Milwaukee Art Museum?

First there’s the onboarding work of getting to know the staff, collections and spaces in-depth, she said.

She is strongly interested in audience engagement and plans to focus on generating repeat visits. “I’d like people to feel that there’s always something new and that it’s worth coming back,” she said.

She wants to appeal to the millennial and Gen Z cohorts, and to tap into the vital energy of young professionals in Milwaukee.

Sajet also wants to “activate” the space around the lakefront museum through partnerships with different entities in Milwaukee.

Mentioning her MBA, Sajet said the director of a museum is like the producer of a show, bringing creative people together but also looking for the funding to make projects work. It will be important for the museum to have various streams of revenue coming in, she said.

Who is Kim Sajet replacing as director of the Milwaukee Art Museum?

Sajet is succeeding Marcelle Polednik, who was MAM’s Donna and Donald Baumgartner Director from 2016 until July of this year.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: What to know about Kim Sajet, new Milwaukee Art Museum director