Melanie Keen, who has been the director of the Wellcome Collection since 2019, is to leave the London-based museum and library.
Keen’s six-year tenure has not been without controversy: in 2022 she dismantled the Medicine Man exhibition, which for 15 years had displayed items from the founding million-plus collection of the 19th century pharmaceutical entrepreneur Henry Wellcome. At the time the museum issued a statement claiming the display of objects ‘perpetuates a version of medical history that is based on racist, sexist and ableist theories and language’ and only told the ‘colonial story of a man with enormous wealth, power and privilege’. The objects were put into storage.
Keen, who was previously director of Iniva, invited a number of contemporary artists into the Wellcome Collection, including commissions for Jason Wilsher-Mills (2025) and Grace Ndiritu (2022), which looked at disability and care; a 2025 work by Christine Sun-Kim and Thomas Mader that addressed the Deaf experience; and Raqs Media Collective, included in the 2025 exhibition Thirst: In Search of Freshwater, exploring water scarcity.
The Wellcome Collection is funded by the Wellcome Trust, the UK’s biggest charity, founded with an endowment from Henry Wellcome and which now distributes approximately £1 billion annually, primarily supporting scientific research.
While a new director to the collection is sought, Sam Owen, associate director strategy and governance, will act as lead.
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