Cynthia Chavez Lamar has been named director of the National Museum of the American Indian, becoming the first Native woman to helm a museum under the aegis of the Smithsonian Institution in the 175 years since that organization’s founding. Chavez Lamar is of Hopi, Navajo and Tewa descent.

Curator and writer Zdenka Badovinac, who in December 2020 was forced by Slovenia’s new right-wing government from her post as director of Ljubljana’s Moderna Galerija, a position she had held since 1993, has been announced as the new director of the Zagreb Museum of Contemporary Art (MSU).

The Brooklyn Museum announced the creation of a new role and revealed its inaugurator as Adjoa Jones de Almeida, who will serve as Deputy Director for Learning and Social Impact. She founded the Bahia, Brazil–based organizations Sista II Sista in 1996 and Diáspora Solidária about a decade later. In her new post, she will continue to lead the education division and to oversee the museum’s public programs and community engagement teams.

Sotheby’s has announced Jean Qian as its new director of operations in China. She will operate out of Shanghai, where she will work to elevate the auctioneer’s presence in the country. Nathan Drahi, managing director of the auction house in Asia, said that “China is a major strategic focus for Sotheby’s”.

Pace Gallery, one of the biggest galleries in the world, has hired Kimberly Drew, a closely watched multi-hyphenate whose various projects have spanned the worlds of museums, fashion magazines, and activism. Drew will become a New York–based associate director at the gallery, which currently also has permanent locations in London, Hong Kong, Seoul, Geneva, and Palo Alto.