The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) has announced Pierre Terjanian as its next director and CEO. Terjanian will take over the reigns from Matthew Teitelbaum on 1 July, moving from his current role as chief of curatorial affairs and conservation at the MFA.
Terjanian joined the MFA in 2024 to oversee the conservation of the museum’s collection of more than 500,000 objects. Previously, Terjanian was a curator of arms and amour at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for ten years, and before that served a curator and acting head of the Department of European sculpture and Decorative Arts before 1700 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Speaking to the New York Times, Terjanian described the current climate around museums under the Trump administration as ‘volatile’, while noting that the museum has received less than 1 percent of its budget from the government over the last two years. Terjanian stated that the museum was not planning to avoid certain programming because of the Tump administration’s prohibitions against diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
‘In a search process that began with a survey of our staff, Board, and a range of stakeholders, Pierre’s name came up again and again from nearly every corner of the institution and from our community – and it’s no surprise,’ said Emi M. Winterer, president of the MFA’s board of trustees. ‘He quickly earned the trust and respect of his colleagues.’
