CHARLESTON, SC.- The Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston announced that after a comprehensive, national search the Museum is appointing H. Alexander Rich, Ph.D. as the new President and CEO. Dr. Rich comes to the Gibbes from the Ashley Gibson Barnett Museum of Art (The AGB) at Florida Southern College, where he served as Executive Director and Chief Curator. He also served as Chair of the Department of Art History and Museum Studies at the College, and as Associate Professor of Art History – holding the George and Dorothy Forsythe Endowed Chair in Art History and Museum Studies.

“The Gibbes Museum of Art welcomes H. Alexander Rich, Ph.D., as our new President and CEO of the Museum,” says Spencer J. Lynch, the Chair of the Gibbes Museum’s Board. “His career is marked by a commitment to advancing the fields of museums and art history through his innovative leadership, scholarly contributions, and community engagement. He is recognized for building valuable relationships with donors, and expanding institutional reach globally with major cultural organizations. His experience as a museum director, chief curator, tenured professor, endowed chair, and public lecturer demonstrates a strong commitment to fostering cultural and educational growth in the community,” adds Lynch.

Dr. Rich is succeeding Angela Mack, who is retiring from the Gibbes after a distinguished 44-year tenure. “The legacy of arts leadership created by his predecessor, Angela Mack, during her four decades at the Gibbes represents a major chapter in the City of Charleston’s cultural evolution,” says Lynch. “Her curatorial contributions, visionary leadership, and successful fundraising sustained and enriched the Gibbes Museum and brought a global perspective to Charleston, showing the city’s significant contribution to the world through art,” adds Lynch.

Dr. Rich is a specialist in Modern and Contemporary art history, with a particular focus on European and American art of the 19th and 20th centuries. He earned his Ph.D. in Art History from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and his A.B. from Dartmouth College.

A native of New York City, Dr. Rich led The AGB through a period of major transformation and growth and its major expansion in January 2025 – overseeing the fundraising of more than $18 million since 2022, and fulfilling a three-decade-long dream for the Museum. Before moving to Lakeland in 2014, Dr. Rich taught previously at the History of Art Department at the Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York, and in the City University of New York system. Prior to joining the staff of The AGB in 2017 (then the Polk Museum of Art), and becoming its executive director in 2019, during his undergraduate and graduate studies he worked and interned in curatorial and education capacities at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Hood Museum of Art in Hanover, NH, among others.

“I am honored to join the Gibbes Museum of Art, one of the most storied American art museums in one of the most storied cities in the United States,” says H. Alexander Rich, Ph.D. “I am deeply grateful to be chosen to lead the Museum into its next exciting chapter. I look forward to working with the Museum’s talented team, the Board, donors, City leaders, supporters, members, and community leaders. Recognized as a beacon for the arts in the American South since 1858 when the Carolina Art Association began, the Gibbes is heralded as one of the earliest and most longstanding arts institutions in the United States. With the Museum’s transformative expansion already underway, the Gibbes has the opportunity to be recognized and celebrated as one of the country’s — and the world’s — great art museums.”


The Gibbes Museum. Photo by JB McCabe.

The Gibbes Museum’s Transition Committee conducted more than 20 listening sessions with the Board, stakeholders, donors, trustees, leadership team, staff, and members of the community. The Museum was assisted in the search by the acclaimed executive search firm Russell Reynolds Associates.

H. Alexander Rich, Ph.D.

Dr. Rich led The AGB through a historic transformation, becoming one of only a few museums in the nation that serve as both an academic and community art museum ‒ achieving the distinction of being the only academic Art History and Museum Studies Department in the country to be housed within a museum.

He led The AGB through a transformational expansion and fundraising campaign. The new wing and major building expansion tripled the exhibition space, adding seven new galleries, new educational spaces, a new creativity lab, and extensive renovations to the original building. The grand opening of the expansion in 2025 featured the unprecedented presentation of eight exhibitions all at once. During his leadership, The AGB’s collection grew 33% since 2017.

Dr. Rich has curated more than sixty far-ranging and acclaimed museum exhibitions, including: Masters of Spain: Goya and Picasso; Renoir: Les Études; Rembrandt’s Academy; Chagall: Stories into Dreams; Toulouse-Lautrec and the Belle Époque; The Art of the Highwaymen; Edward Hopper and Guy Pène du Bois: Painting the Real; Remembering Vilna: The Holocaust and the Art of Samuel Bak; and Rockwell/Wyeth: Icons of Americana.

With his curatorial leadership, Dr. Rich’s exhibitions at The AGB achieved record-breaking attendance numbers for the Museum. Dr. Rich established far reaching new partnerships for The AGB with major international lenders and arts organizations, expanding the Museum’s relationships globally, and culminating in the long-term loans of 14 Rodin sculptures from the Cantor Foundation.

About the Gibbes Museum of Art
The Gibbes Museum of Art, a beacon in the American South for arts and culture since 1858 when the Museum’s art collection was founded, is heralded as one of the earliest and most longstanding arts institutions in the United States. The Museum’s collection spans 350 years, and features some of the country’s most celebrated artists ‒ including contemporary, modern and historical works. With world-class rotating exhibitions and a dynamic visiting artist residency program, the Gibbes is a Southern museum with a global perspective. The Museum’s mission is to enhance lives through art by engaging people of every background and experience with art and artists of enduring quality, providing opportunities to learn and discover, to enjoy and be inspired by the creative process. Museum hours and visitor info at: www.gibbesmuseum.org/visit