Valerie Hillings, the director of the North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) , has been appointed the inaugural director of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi ahead of the museum’s opening later this year.
Hillings joined the NCMA in 2018 where, according to the North Carolina state government website, she presided over “significant growth at the NCMA campuses in Raleigh and Winston-Salem and successfully led the largest private fundraising campaign in NCMA history”. According to its latest annual report, the museum welcomed 1.17 million visitors across its two campuses in the fiscal year 2025.
The long-awaited new Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, located on Saadiyat Island in the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), will open on 11 December, the Department of Culture and Tourism-Abu Dhabi announced last week. Plans for the new mega museum were initially unveiled in 2006; the cost is undisclosed. “Hillings will lead the museum’s strategic direction and establish the institution—one that is rooted in Abu Dhabi and connected to the world, brings cultures together, inspires people, and celebrates art from the 1960s to the present,” the Guggenheim said in a statement.
From 2009 to 2018, Hillings served as a curator and associate director of curatorial affairs for the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi project, overseeing the museum’s collection strategy and acquisitions. She also organised exhibitions drawn from the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi collection such as The Creative Act at the Manarat Al Saadiyat venue in Abu Dhabi (2017), which included works by artists such as Rasheed Araeen and Mohammed Kazem.
“I am honoured to return to Abu Dhabi to complete the once-in-a-lifetime journey of founding and opening Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, a museum developed in the United Arab Emirates by colleagues from both the region and around the world,” Hillings said in a statement.
Stephanie Rosenthal, the director of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi project, wrote on LinkedIn: “Since joining in 2022… I have had the privilege of leading the artistic vision and holistic institutional development of the museum, guiding its evolution from project development toward its inaugural opening… As Guggenheim Abu Dhabi prepares for its opening, I look forward to working closely with Valerie throughout this transition.”
András Szántó, a strategy adviser to museums, wrote on Instagram: “It is noteworthy that all senior posts in the Guggenheim network are now held by women—the head of the entire organisation and all four museum chiefs—a testament to how far the museum world has come.” Mariët Westermann was appointed director and chief executive of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation in late 2023.