Kim Sajet (pronounced Sayet), currently president and CEO of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, has been appointed director of the National Portrait Gallery, effective April 1.
Kim Sajet Photo: Wendy Concannon
Sajet will lead the National Portrait Gallery, established by Congress in 1962, to display images of the “men and women who have made significant contributions to the history, development and culture of the people of the United States.”
Highlights of the collection and exhibitions include the famous “cracked plate” photograph of Abraham Lincoln by Alexander Gardner, taken several months before his assassination in 1865; the “Lansdowne” portrait of George Washington painted by Gilbert Stuart; the permanent “America’s Presidents” exhibition; and thousands of artworks depicting influential Americans from baseball players to leaders of the civil rights movements. The museum most recently commissioned a portrait of Gen. Colin Powell, which was unveiled in December 2012.
Sajet will oversee a staff of 65 with an annual federal budget of about $9 million (fiscal year 2013) and a collection of about 21,000 objects. The museum’s mission is to inspire visitors from around the world through visual arts, performing arts and new media that connect people and their stories to the American experience. The National Portrait Gallery shares its space with the Smithsonian American Art Museum in the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture, a National Historic Landmark building at Eighth and F streets N.W. in Washington.