As a curator, scholar, and museum executive, Lynda Roscoe Hartigan brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to PEM. During her time as Chief Curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, she led an internationally recognized acquisition initiative to build collections of works by Black, self-taught, and modern and contemporary artists. In 2003, Lynda was appointed as PEM’s first Chief Curator and in 2016 became Deputy Director.
Overseeing the interpretation and installation of PEM’s new wing, she was integral to developing and advancing the museum’s innovative exhibition program, collection stewardship, fundraising, education, publishing, digital, and global leadership initiatives. Most recently, she was Deputy Director for Collections and Research and Chief Innovation Officer at the Royal Ontario Museum, Canada’s largest museum dedicated to art, culture, and the sciences. Lynda has returned to PEM to become the museum’s first woman director and to boldly lead the nation’s oldest continually operating and ever-evolving museum forward.
