Wellcome Collection to wave goodbye to leader of 7 years

MELANIE KEEN is to depart the Wellcome Collection in London this spring.

Keen, director for seven years of the museum and library, leaves having joined in 2019, shortly before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

She was previously director and chief curator at the Institute of International Visual Arts.

In her absence, the museum, which focuses on matters relating to health, the body, and their intersection with art, will be headed up by interim director SAM OWEN.

Owen is the Wellcome Collection’s current associate director of strategy and governance.

Keen, who has worked for organisations including Frieze Art Fair and the Venice Biennale, said: “It has been an absolute privilege to serve as the director of Wellcome Collection and to work with such talented colleagues and collaborators whom I admire and respect.

“The reason I joined Wellcome was its commitment to equity and inclusion, and I
leave an organisation that has a growing and more inclusive audience, and a cadre of diverse artists represented across many aspects of the programme.”

“With a brilliant forward plan and talented Wellcome Collection team in place, the organisation is well placed to build on this work into its next decade of excellence and evolution,” she added.