The Guggenheim Foundation has appointed Richard Armstrong as the new Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Armstrong, 59, who has been the Henry J. Heinz II Director of the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh since 1996, will succeed Thomas Krens, who resigned from the position in February 2008.

As Director of both the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and the Foundation’s flagship Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, Mr. Armstrong will focus on the pivotal role of the New York museum and its extraordinary collection while also providing leadership and management for the four other institutions in the Guggenheim network: the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain; The Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin and the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Museum which is scheduled to open in early 2013.

Outgoing Foundation Director Thomas Krens say of Armstrong’s appointment, “I have known Richard Armstrong, and his work at the Whitney and the Carnegie, for as long as I have been at the Guggenheim. I could not think of a better choice for the next director. Richard brings to the task the requisite knowledge, strength, experience, and openness to lead the Foundation in an exciting and rapidly changing world.”