Sally Tallant has been appointed director of London’s Hayward Gallery and Visual Arts, the Southbank Centre has announced. She will start the role in July, taking over from Ralph Rugoff, who held the position for 20 years.
Early in her career, Tallant was an assistant curator at the Hayward Gallery. She then joined the Serpentine Galleries as head of programmes from 2001 to 2011 before becoming artistic director and CEO of the Liverpool Biennial from 2011 to 2019. Since 2019 she has been director of the Queens Museum in New York, a role for which she has overseen more than 30 major exhibitions and commissioned six permanent public artworks at LaGuardia Airport.
‘I am thrilled to have Sally Tallant join us,’ said Mark Ball, artistic director of the Southbank Centre, in a statement. ‘She is a visionary leader and curator whose work – from the Queens Museum to the Liverpool Biennial – perfectly mirrors our own ambitions to be innovative and interdisciplinary. Sally understands how to create world-class encounters that bridge the gap between art and community. As she joins us in this landmark year, I look forward to seeing her bring the Hayward Gallery into the future with a spirit of openness, energy, and radical accessibility.’
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