Miren Arzalluz to Lead Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

TheGuggenheim Museum Bilbaohas named art historian and curatorMiren Arzalluzas its new director general. Arzalluz, a native of Bilbao and currently director of Paris’s Fashion Museum–Palais Galliera, will assume her new duties on April 1, 2025. She takes the reins from Juan Ignacio Vidarte, who helmed the institution for thirty-two years and oversaw the construction of its Frank Gehry-designed home. Vidarte this past May announced his decision to depart. “I believe it is my responsibility to promote generational change by facilitating the process of identifying the person who will lead the museum in the coming years, writing another chapter in its history, and to give way to new voices and initiatives that will continue this success story,” he said in a statement at the time. “As an institution committed to the art of today, the museum must remain dynamic and reflect the ideas and perspectives of the next and emerging generations. Guiding this transition is my commitment.”

Arzalluz, who this year was made a Chevalière de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture, has led the Palais Galliera since 2018. While there, she oversaw the institution’s renewal and expansion project as well as its exhibitions and programming and shepherded a collaboration between the museum, Paris Musées, and the city of Paris. Prior to her arrival at the Palais Galliera, she was director of Etxepare Euskal Institutua, a public institution of the Basque government aimed at the international promotion of Basque language and contemporary culture. Arzalluz was earlier chief curator of the Museo Cristóbal Balenciaga in Getaria, Spain. She holds a Ph.D. in history from Deusto University, an MA in art history from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, and an MA in comparative politics from the London School of Economics.