New leadership at AKG

Buffalo, NY (WBEN)( The Buffalo AKG Art Museum announced the appointment of two leaders for the 164-year-old museum of modern and contemporary art: Chief Curator Cathleen Chaffee has been appointed Artistic Director, and Deputy Director Jillian Jones has been appointed Executive Director. They will begin serving in their new roles on November 1.

"The Board saw an opportunity to embrace a leadership model as ambitious as the museum itself, and as forward-looking as the moment demands," said Board President Alice F. Jacobs. "Over the past twelve years, Jillian Jones and Cathleen Chaffee have each had a transformative impact on this institution — the talent we needed was already here. Together, Jillian Jones as Executive Director and Cathleen Chaffee as Artistic Director bring a bold, shared vision for the Buffalo AKG's next chapter, and we could not be more excited about where they will take us."

“It is an extraordinary privilege to serve as Executive Director at this pivotal moment in the museum's history,” said Jillian Jones. “At a time when it is increasingly easy to retreat into familiar perspectives, museums invite us to remain curious, embrace complexity, and encounter one another with openness. Artists make those moments possible. Our responsibility is to create the conditions in which their work can flourish and continue to challenge and inspire. I am excited to work alongside Cathleen, our Board, and our exceptional staff to build on this momentum while ensuring the Buffalo AKG continues to lead through artistic excellence, cultural leadership, and a spirit of innovation.”

“Great museums inherit extraordinary histories. Their responsibility, however, is always to the future,” said Cathleen Chaffee. “The Buffalo AKG has earned its place among the world's leading museums through generations of artists, staff, trustees, and supporters who have shaped this institution with imagination, dedication, and generosity. To build on their work alongside Jillian and our colleagues across the museum is an honor and a profound responsibility. My hope is that we continue to surprise people through the artists we champion and the conversations their work makes possible. I look forward to what the next generation of artists and audiences will ask of us.”

Together, Jones and Chaffee bring more than three decades of museum leadership experience and nearly twenty-five years of combined service to the Buffalo AKG. Their partnership has helped guide the museum through the most ambitious period of growth in its history, laying the foundation for this next chapter of shared leadership.

The AKG says these appointments will coincide with the implementation later this year of a new strategic plan that positions the Buffalo AKG as an agile, innovative, and globally engaged cultural institution grounded in artistic excellence and financial sustainability. The museum's eleventh director, Janne Sirén, will conclude his tenure on October 31.