Wadsworth Atheneum Museum Names New President and CEO

Allison Blais. Courtesy Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut, named Allison Blais as its new president and CEO starting in January 2026.

Blais, who will replace Jeffrey N. Brown after five years in the role, is currently executive vice president and chief strategy and operations officer of New York’s 9/11 Memorial & Museum, both of which she worked on from early planning stages, including a stint at the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.

In a statement, Duffield Ashmead IV MD, chair of the Wadsworth’s board, said, “Allison has had great success overseeing large-scale capital projects in New York City while demonstrating her ability to work with a broad range of stakeholders at an institution of national relevance. We look forward to her partnership with museum director Matthew Hargraves, and a bright future here at the Wadsworth.” Related Articles Wadsworth Museum Says It Did Not Violate Free Speech Rights in DEI Lawsuit, Accuses Ex-Employee of Breaking Law by Recording Calls Former Wadsworth Atheneum Employee Who Resisted DEI Initiative Claims Termination Violated Free Speech Blais said, “Growing up outside Hartford, I came to know the Wadsworth as a place where timeless masterpieces live alongside timely discoveries.

Under Jeff Brown’s leadership and the board’s guidance, the museum is embracing a renewed sense of identity and purpose, and museum director Matthew Hargraves is advancing a compelling vision that both honors its history and energizes it in powerful ways.” The Wadsworth was founded in 1842 by Daniel Wadsworth, one of the first American patrons of art, and stakes a claim as the oldest continuously operating public art museum in the U.S. In a 2024 Washington Post roundup of the 20 best American art museums (in which the Wadsworth ranked #18), art critic Sebastian Smee wrote, “Its baroque, surrealist and Hudson River School holdings are tremendous.

It boasts the Serge Lifar collection of Ballets Russes drawings and costumes, the Samuel Colt firearms collection, a terrific “Wunderkammer” display, great costumes and textiles, and destination paintings by, among others, William Holman Hunt, Caravaggio, Joseph Wright of Derby and Norman Rockwell.” Smee also praised the museum’s Matrix program for contemporary art, which is currently presenting an exhibition by Sofía Gallisá Muriente that includes a video about a Puerto Rican nationalist who pulled off a major bank heist in Hartford in 1983. Wadsworth Museum Says It Did Not Violate Free Speech Rights in DEI Lawsuit, Accuses Ex-Employee of Breaking Law by Recording Calls Former Wadsworth Atheneum Employee Who Resisted DEI Initiative Claims Termination Violated Free Speech RobbReport A Chevrolet C8 Corvette Race Car Can Now Be Yours for $1.5 Million WWD Sarah Jessica Parker Favors Ornate Embroidery and Queen Camilla Opts for Polka Dots at 2025 Booker Prize Reception Sportico Conference USA Accuses La Tech of Hiding the Ball in Public Records Suit IndieWire ‘The Things You Kill’ Review: A Tense Existential Apocalypse in Turkey Is Like ‘Lost Highway’ Directed by Kiarostami