BUFFALO, NY.- Today the Buffalo AKG Art Museum announced that Janne Sirén, PhD, Peggy Pierce Elfvin Director, would resign from his post as the eleventh Director in the museum’s 164-year history in October 2026. The Board of Directors will develop its plans to fill the vacant position throughout the summer.

Sirén’s decision to move on from the Buffalo AKG marks the completion of one of the most consequential directorships in the museum’s history. Before his appointment to the role in 2013, Sirén served as Director of the Helsinki Art Museum and, before that, Director of the Tampere Art Museum. Sirén brought to Buffalo novel approaches to arts and museum management that would manifest in countless ways throughout the ensuing thirteen years.

"Dr. Sirén’s accomplishments are unique,” said Alice F. Jacobs, President of the Board of Directors. “He built both a world-class museum campus and a platform—one that connects the Buffalo AKG to its community in Western New York and to the global art world simultaneously. Under his leadership, the museum has celebrated its deep community roots and international presence; combining architecture, programs and networks to grow and sustain the museum for generations. Strong partnerships are at the heart of Dr. Sirén's tenure, including partnership with the Board, a collaboration I have valued enormously. On behalf of the Board of Directors, we will be forever grateful for all he has done for the museum and everyone it serves."

“It has been a great honor and privilege to lead and together with an exceptional team build and uplift the Buffalo AKG Art Museum,” said Janne Sirén, PhD, Peggy Pierce Elfvin Director. “I have lived in fourteen cities in seven culturally and linguistically distinct countries. Among all of them, Buffalo stands out as the most welcoming community, a city that is radiant, resilient, and filled with enormous potential. When I think of the past thirteen years, I feel a deep sense of gratitude for all the human connections that working at the AKG has generated and fostered. Our museum thrives thanks to our dedicated and tireless staff; artists whose creative energy and brilliance knows no bounds; a profoundly committed and thoughtful Board of Directors; forward-thinking and selfless elected officials; and a large cohort of visionary philanthropists and museum members in and beyond Buffalo, including those who hail from the Nordic region. Together we have realized big dreams and have given wings to the aspirations of artists and to the transformative power of art.

“What will I do next, colleagues and friends near and far might wonder. It’s simple: from the block of time that we call human life, I will carve out time for my family and for focused, impactful projects within the art world, working globally as a family ensemble with and for artists, museums and cultural organizations, companies and governments, and private individuals. I will also write and hopefully memorialize some legs of the journey from my native Finland, the land of songs and lakes, to Buffalo and beyond. Love, Learn, and Live—that’s my motto.”

Shortly after his appointment, Sirén launched the Public Art Initiative, a unique model for sustainable public art programming predicated on a tripartite partnership between the museum and the public and private sectors. To date, the widely celebrated Initiative has realized more than sixty public art projects that have fundamentally altered the fabric of Western New York. It remains the only dedicated public art department at an American museum.

In 2014, Sirén launched the Innovation Lab, the goal of which was to generate and develop new solutions to challenges confronting museums and society in the 21st century. Throughout the run of its operations, which ceased in 2020, the Innovation Lab received numerous grants to pursue an array of projects, including Art Heals, a partnership with Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center; a foundational partnership with the Society for the Advancement of Construction-Related Arts (SACRA), which uses design art to address critical needs related to neighborhood stabilization, preservation, and workforce training; and the Art of Visual Comprehension, a collaboration with Vanderbilt University, the Ontario College of Art and Design University, and the University at Buffalo to evaluate the impact of visual arts on visual perception and cognition.

The hallmark of Sirén’s tenure is the creation of the Buffalo AKG Art Museum and the completion of the unprecedented $230-million capital campaign that funded it. The project, which broke ground on November 22, 2019, vastly expanded the museum’s exhibition space, renovated its existing historic facilities, and dramatically increased the integration of the museum’s campus into the surrounding urban landscape and Frederick Law Olmsted’s Delaware Park. The construction project and the related capital campaign had profound impacts throughout the region, with nearly $300 million in one-time economic impact generated throughout New York State and more than $40 million in annual statewide economic impact, according to the University at Buffalo Regional Institute. The museum’s staff grew from 62 in April 2013 to more than 200 following the completion of the construction project, and the museum’s attendance of 340,000 in the year following its grand opening broke a 51-year record. The museum’s operating endowment also increased from $31.3 million in 2013 to $79.3 million in 2026.

During Sirén’s thirteen-year tenure, the museum’s fine art collection grew from 6,669 objects to 8,489 to date. Major acquisitions include Anselm Kiefer’s der Morgenthau Plan (2012); Ursula von Rydingsvard’s Blackened Word (2008); Ragnar Kjartansson’s No Tomorrow (2022); Jeffrey Gibson’s PEOPLE LIKE US (2019); and Simone Leigh’s Village Series (2021). As part of the creation of the new Buffalo AKG campus, Sirén led the museum in commissioning three site-specific artworks that are permanently integrated into the fabric of the museum: Common Sky (2022) by Olafur Eliasson and Sebastian Behmann of Studio Other Spaces; Others Will Know (2023) by Miriam Bäckström; and Chorus of the Deep (something ephemeral and beautifully whole, when seen from the edge of one’s vision, too full when taken head on) (2023) by Firelei Báez. Arguably the most significant intervention into the Buffalo AKG’s renowned collection occurred as a result of the Marisol Bequest, which established the museum as the home of the most significant collection of Marisol’s work in the world. To date the bequest has resulted in the acquisition of 585 artworks.

In August 2021, at CHART in Copenhagen, Sirén launched the AKG Nordic Art and Culture Initiative, a unique platform for art and artists working in or associated with the Nordic region in North America. Supported by the generosity of seventy Founding Patrons, the Initiative represents a truly international collaboration and a continuation of the Buffalo AKG’s longstanding commitment to Nordic art. Just as the museum extended its curatorial wingspan internationally, it also made great strides across the United States. In 2023, the Buffalo AKG established the National Council, a new group of visionary supporters and advocates across the country who guide and empower the museum’s celebrated exhibition program.

Sirén’s tenure included an array of major exhibitions, including Northern Lights (2025); Marisol: A Retrospective (2024); Robert Indiana: A Sculpture Retrospective (2018); We the People: New Art from the Collection (2018); Out of Sight! Art of the Senses (2017); Shade: Clyfford Still/Mark Bradford (2016); Picasso: The Artist and His Models (2016); Monet and the Impressionist Revolution, 1860-1910 (2015); Giving Up One’s Mark: Helen Frankenthaler in the 1960s and 1970s (2014); and Anselm Kiefer: Beyond Landscape (2013).

Sirén received his PhD from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University in 2001. He has published widely on modern and contemporary art, including the book The Impressionist Revolution and the Advent of Abstract Art (2016). Sirén is the President of Eschaton—Anselm Kiefer Foundation and serves on the Board of the Princess Estelle Cultural Foundation.