The Tamesis
Sasha Suda said in her first extensive interview since being fired last year as director and CEO of the Philadelphia Museum of Art philadelphia magazine The board had tried to strip her of parts of her CEO job.
Although she made similar accusations in a previous lawsuit against the museum, she did not go into as much detail as she did in the lawsuit. philadelphia magazine feature.
She claims that Leslie Anne Miller, the museum’s former board president, initially offered her both positions and hired her only as director, then tried to separate her two positions. Sudha claimed that Miller would allow her to serve as both director and CEO only during the transition period.
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Sudha claims philadelphia magazine She refutes this claim in her article, noting that she served as director and CEO of the National Gallery of Canada. Suda said it was only after she rejected Miller’s offer that the board retracted its decision.
When Miller finally called Sudha to formally offer her the position as director and CEO, Sudha reportedly responded: “You mean the one I applied for?”
A spokesman for the Philadelphia Museum of Art declined to comment, saying the institution could not respond because the Souda case was still litigated.
Details of Sudha’s dismissal remain in the spotlight. She was abruptly fired on Election Day in November, a decision she attributed in an email to “reasons” but did not specify what those reasons were.
After she was unexpectedly fired, she and the museum board traded accusations about what really happened. The board alleged that Sudha had “misused” agency funds for personal gain, which Sudha called a “scam.” Sudha, meanwhile, claimed that certain trustees began unfairly investigating her; the museum said the investigation was fair and focused on the “theft” of funds.
Whether the controversial rebranding — from the Philadelphia Museum of Art to the Philadelphia Museum of Art (the new abbreviation of PhAM was parodied as PhArt) — played a role in Souda’s firing remains an open question. Certain trustees claimed that Sudha did not adequately inform them before undertaking the rebranding, although Sudha denied this in a statement. philadelphia magazine story. (Journalist Robert Huber, citing anonymous sources, said no one “saw anything” that the rebranding prompted Souda’s firing.)
The article does shed light on another institutional issue that remains opaque: the departure of chief curator Carlos Basuldo. Basuldo, whose curatorial work includes the acclaimed Jasper Jones retrospective in 2022, began directing the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas last year.
According to Souda, she placed Basuldo on administrative leave in 2024, but she declined to specify the reasons for doing so. She claimed she informed current board chair Ellen Kaplan of the decision, but other board members seemed unaware. “I don’t know that I can’t expect her to work in the back channels,” Sudha told philadelphia magazine.
Suda also claimed that at least one trustee was so upset by the decision that he sought a vote on whether she should remain at the museum. The vote doesn’t appear to be happening.
Basuldo, through a spokesman for the Nasher Sculpture Center, declined to comment on his departure from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, saying the institution “is a great museum and will continue to be a great museum” and that he wished Suda well.
