Simon Wallis, the director of the Hepworth Wakefield, has been announced as the new secretary and chief executive of London’s Royal Academy of Arts (RA). In September, he’ll step into the shoes of Axel Rüger, who departed his role last October to become the director of the Frick Collection in New York.
“As the world’s oldest and foremost artist-led organization, the extraordinary talent and vision of the Royal Academicians, and their team, leads the creative conversation on a national and international stage,” Wallis said in a statement.
His resume includes stints as the director of London’s Chisenhale Gallery, senior exhibitions organizer at the ICA in London, curator at Tate Liverpool, and curator at Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge.
One of Wallis’ first jobs at the RA will be to steady the ship; in April, the academy swung the axe, cutting 15 percent of its workforce through both compulsory and voluntary redundancies. The restructuring came after the academy said in February that layoffs were necessary “to sustain its position in the future.”
Wallis’ track record at the Hepworth Wakefield in West Yorkshire is strong—after being appointed as director in 2008, the museum opened three years later and hit its annual visitor target of 150,000 in just five weeks. In 2017, the museum—named after the late British sculptor Barbara Hepworth—was crowned the Art Fund Museum of the Year.
Wallis’ tenure has seen the Hepworth Wakefield’s art collection grow by more than $35 million through philanthropy.
“I am delighted that Simon will be joining us,” the RA president, Rebecca Salter, said in a statement. “As director of the Hepworth Wakefield for the past 17 years, he brings a wealth of experience together with vision and energy. I am looking forward to working with him as we continue to shape the Royal Academy for the 21st century.”
Wallis said that he’s “excited by the opportunity to foster further inspirational creativity, entrepreneurial spirit and reach new audiences” in what he called “a pivotal moment of development and positive change” at the RA.
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