The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art has announced a new senior leadership team, with John K. Lapiana as director and Heran Sereke-Brhan as deputy director.
Lapiana has served as interim director of the National Museum of African Art for the past two years, steering the institution through a transition phase, hiring staff and leading plans for its 60th anniversary this year.
In this role, he also increased the museum’s focus on the visitor experience, started an ambitious fundraising effort, and continued to implement the Smithsonian’s ethical returns policy, which started with the repatriation of Benin bronzes in the museum’s collections to their place of origin, Nigeria.
Lapiana has worked in a variety of leadership positions since joining the Smithsonian in 1998 as an attorney in the general counsel’s office.
“I have gotten to know the museum well during my nearly two years as interim director,” he said. “I’m very excited to work with the museum’s dedicated staff and advisory board to share African arts, cultures and knowledge with audiences across the nation and around the world.”
Sereke-Brhan is the author of many publications on Ethiopian social and political history, arts and material culture. Most recently, she served as vice president of the Washington, DC-based Arts Consulting Group. Before that, she was executive director of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
“This is an incredible opportunity,” Sereke-Brhan said. “My studies and travels throughout Africa and my personal experience of growing up in Ethiopia taught me the depth and strength of Africa’s cultural and artistic diversity and its connection to the rest of the world. The museum honors and showcases this breadth and complexity.”
New director, deputy director
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art cares for a collection of more than 13,000 artworks spanning more than 1,000 years of African history.
“The National Museum of African Art is one of the Smithsonian’s little-known gems,” said Smithsonian secretary Lonnie Bunch.
“In a year celebrating its storied past, bringing in a strong new leadership team combining John’s deep knowledge of the museum and the Smithsonian with Heran’s fresh ideas and perspective rooted in African artistic tradition will help ensure the museum’s brilliant future.”
Images courtesy of the Smithsonian
