Art Gallery of NSW director Michael Brand announces departure

Art Gallery of NSW director Michael Brand will step down after more than a decade at the helm of the institution in an announcement set to shake up Australia’s arts scene.

Brand, only the ninth director of the gallery, will depart in July 2025, triggering a national and international search for a successor that could result in the first woman being appointed to the leadership position since the gallery’s foundation in 1881.

The Art Gallery of NSW is losing its director, Michael Brand. Credit: Janie Barrett

His notice of departure comes almost two years to the day since the ribbon was cut on the organisation’s new building, Sydney Modern, a project he was appointed to oversee that has helped the gallery welcome 4 million visitors.

Brand said the timing was right to “transition to a new generation of leadership” in a note to senior staff circulated after a small private function hosted by the gallery’s president, David Gonski, on Monday night.

A scholar of Indian and Islamic art with deep connections to the international art world, Brand has not announced his plans but is not thought to be retiring.

“When we unveiled the Sydney Modern vision in 2013, I said it would be a green light for art, artists and audiences,” Brand said in a statement issued to this masthead.

“I am extremely proud of all that we have achieved together in the last 12 years to create a unique art museum experience on Gadigal country in Sydney for our local and international audiences. The ambitious project is what called me back to Australia and so my decision to step down next year follows much reflection.

“As we are now building on the success of the Sydney Modern transformation, it feels like the right time to transition to a new generation of leadership for the next exciting chapter in the history of our 153-year-old art museum.”

The gallery’s deputy director, Maud Page, is regarded as a frontrunner while the former assistant director of the Art Gallery of South Australia, Lisa Slade, could be tapped for the top role.

Internationally, Australian Suhanya Raffel, museum director of M+ art museum in Hong Kong, and Melissa Chiu, director of Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC, could be contenders.

National Gallery of Victoria’s respected director, Tony Ellwood, will likely want to see through the expansion of the NGV’s new home of contemporary arts, opening in 2028.

Brand’s departure represents a massive change of the guard at AGNSW. It will follow the departure of Gonski, whose term ends in December.

The pair were key architects in the $344 million Sydney Modern project which saw the gallery’s footprint almost double and the institution become the jewel in the state’s cultural crown.

Brand’s exit had been speculated given his close working relationship with Gonski. More than $110 million was raised for the gallery’s expansion from wealthy private donors, without which the project would never have received the green light.

But it will come as a surprise outside the institution, as Brand has been the face of the gallery since taking over from the late Edmund Capon in 2012. He was thrust into public politics in the past 12 months as he advocated for an increase in the gallery’s operating funding to match its expansion.

Gonski paid tribute to Brand as a director of ambition and vision: “I am deeply grateful for Michael’s considered planning to continue as director until mid-2025 to ensure a smooth leadership transition with a new board president commencing in January.”

The national and international search for a new director will be overseen by the new trust president.

Brand began his career as curator of Asian art at the National Gallery of Australia in 1988. He went on to lead the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, Canada.

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