Museum of Contemporary Art director Liz Ann Macgregor to step down
Liz Ann Macgregor will step down as director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in October after 22 years at its helm.
The Scottish-born Macgregor announced on Wednesday afternoon that she would leave the institution to allow for a new director to lead the post-COVID-19 recovery.
“It’s the 30th anniversary of the museum this year, I’ve been 22 years as its director, it’s time,” Macgregor said.
“The museum is in a great position. We’re coming out of COVID. I want to spend some time with my family in Scotland.”
Arriving in 1999 in her trademark tartan skirts and steel-capped Dr Marten boots, Macgregor cultivated public conversations about the value of contemporary art and has been credited with turning around the fortunes of the gallery from one of neglect and dysfunction.
There were disagreements with the then Lord Mayor Frank Sartor when an international design competition held in 2001 proposed replacing the neo-classical building with a glass structure - publicly derided as a gigantic Ikea coffee table - sitting over the existing building.
The plans went nowhere but Macgregor signed up Telstra to provide free admission securing the institution’s financial future and pioneering a ticketing model that many other institutions have adopted.
Six years later, Macgregor coaxed David Coe and Simon Mordant - two of Sydney’s richest men - to pledge $5 million each towards a more modest refurbishment but that project floundered when Coe’s financial services company folded.
Mordant took over as chairman and he and wife Catriona pledged $15 million towards the project which got underway in 2010.
Macgregor’s challenges were not to end there with COVID-19 punching a huge hole in the museum’s finances and in visitor numbers.
Before her appointment to the MCA, Macgregor was director, of the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham.
She once said: “I have never been someone who believes you have to get bigger to succeed. A good museum is judged on its programs, not its buildings.”
More to come
Linda Morris is an arts writer at The Sydney Morning Herald