STOCKBRIDGE, MASS.- Norman Rockwell Museum today announced that Director/CEO Laurie Norton Moffatt, a visionary leader who guided the transformation of a grassroots house museum into an internationally renowned home for American illustration art, intends to retire in 2026 upon appointment of her successor. During her career-spanning affiliation with Norman Rockwell Museum, including nearly four decades as director, Norton Moffatt shifted the landscape of appreciation and respect for Norman Rockwell, advanced the scholarly study of illustration art into a recognized academic field, and served as a thoughtful and influential advocate for the role of museums in a diverse and evolving society.

Rising from a part-time summer docent while still in college, Norton Moffatt became curator of the fledgling Norman Rockwell Museum in 1981, then was named director in 1986, at the age of 29. Her early experiences of visitors’ emotional responses to Rockwell’s work resonated throughout her career, galvanizing her to champion an artist dismissed by the art world yet beloved by ordinary people. During her five years as curator, Norton Moffatt researched and authored the first catalogue raisonné of Rockwell’s more than 4,000 works, laying the groundwork for subsequent Rockwell scholarship. As director, she worked closely with board, staff, and community leaders to build a $9.4 million new home for Norman Rockwell Museum, which opened in 1993; to grow the Museum’s permanent collections and digital and physical archives to encompass 830 original Rockwells and a total illustration art holdings of over 25,000 works; to organize traveling exhibitions that have brought the art of Rockwell and other illustrators to more than 150 institutions in the U.S. and abroad; and to launch, in 2008-10, the nation’s first scholarly center for illustration art to spur academic research in the field.

Decades of investment in her leadership team, facilities, collections, exhibitions, scholarship, programming, and digital technology have transformed not just Norman Rockwell Museum but the field of illustration art, bringing new depth and attention to the role of illustrators as America’s visual storytellers and helping to rescue the nation’s illustration art heritage for scholarly study, preservation, and popular enjoyment. Norton Moffatt recruited experts and innovators to the staff and board to support her vision for inviting recognition of Rockwell’s importance and influence.

“It would be difficult to overstate Laurie Norton Moffatt’s profound contributions to Norman Rockwell Museum’s growth and evolution, as well as to public, academic, and art-world appreciation for Norman Rockwell and the field of illustration,” said Dolf Berle, Chair of the Board of Trustees of Norman Rockwell Museum. “She has worked in partnership with many board leaders and trustees over the years, opening and advancing new chapters in the appreciation of Norman Rockwell and deepening the Museum’s influence in our community and society. We are proud of her work in the field.”

Through the work of the Museum and her own global advocacy for the art and ideals of Norman Rockwell, Norton Moffatt has successfully invited reconsideration of Rockwell as one of America’s foremost artists and visual storytellers. Formerly dismissed as sentimental by art critics, Rockwell now commands top American art auction prices and continues to draw fans and appreciators of all ages. Recognizing the importance of placing Rockwell within the context of his field, Norton Moffatt broadened Norman Rockwell Museum’s mission to encompass historical and contemporary American illustration art, expanding the Museum’s board leadership, collections, exhibitions, scholarship, and programming to shed revelatory light on the influence of “the people’s art” on American culture and society. She has put a special emphasis on illustrators as carriers of American optimism and ideals, inspired by iconic works such as the Four Freedoms, The Golden Rule, and The Problem We All Live With, all part of the Museum’s permanent collection. From her earliest days with the Museum, Norton Moffatt has recognized and elevated the values of kindness, respect, and social justice that form the core of Rockwell’s art. As director, she has embodied these values and woven them into the mission of Norman Rockwell Museum.

“Laurie Norton Moffatt’s lifelong dedication to the art of Norman Rockwell has taken the Museum on an amazing journey from a little wooden house in the middle of our village to its current incarnation as an internationally renowned and respected home for the artist’s work and his beloved field of illustration art,” said artist and literary translator Daisy Rockwell, a Norman Rockwell Museum Trustee who is Norman Rockwell’s granddaughter and the daughter of his son Jarvis. “As a member of the artist’s family, I am deeply grateful for Laurie’s many years of dedicated stewardship of his artwork and archive and her commitment to creating an environment that consistently welcomes new audiences and fresh approaches to the work.”

Norman Rockwell Museum has formed a Board of Trustees Search Committee to begin the process of selecting a new director. Norton Moffatt will remain Director/CEO until her successor is appointed and will work closely alongside board and staff colleagues to ensure the strongest possible leadership transition. Details on the search process will be forthcoming in a separate announcement by the Board of Trustees.