Matthew Teitelbaum, the director of the Museum of Fine Arts, is retiring after 10 years.
Why did you decide that August 2025 is the right time to leave the Museum of Fine Arts? There are three primary reasons. First, leading an institution is about relationships with the public and agility in thinking about changing audiences, which benefits from new ways of thinking. Ten years is long enough to get some things done, but not so long that leadership gets locked into a single way of thinking. Secondly, things are going well, we have a really good team and our revenue and attendance are coming back. The third thing is that this was the time, personally, to take a bit of a risk and try something different.
What are some of the highlights of your tenure? I would like to think that I struck the right balance between the commitment to access and the commitment to excellence through the presentation of art. I would hope people will say that I opened up the museum to our communities and delivered on my promise to help the museum become a place where all belong. And that I did that with great care for the collection… a high commitment to levels of display and high standards of interpretation. When people come to our galleries, I would hope that they see a continually increasing commitment to communicating the ideas of art and the ideas of artists in a way that relates to their own life experiences.
What’s next? A combination of teaching, writing and playing some role in the museum profession. I want to help create the next generation of museum professionals in changing times. I know that I still have things that I want to say and encouragement that I want to share with a new generation.
Photography by: COURTESY MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON
