Public Programs @ The Institute
Series: Sam Wagstaff Lecture Series
Meeting the Moment: The Evolving Dynamic of Artists and Audiences at the Whitney Museum of American Art
Speaker: Scott Rothkopf, Alice Pratt Brown Director of the Whitney Museum
Wednesday, October 28, 2026 at 6:00pm
Established in 1930 by artist and philanthropist Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the Whitney Museum of American Art has long been at the vanguard of contemporary conversations about what art is and can be. This artist-centric ethos has informed generations of Whitney curators, including Scott Rothkopf, who will discuss his nearly two-decade journey from curator to director. A century after the Museum's founding, Rothkopf envisions a new audience for the artists or our time—a reimagined paradigm of why and for whom a museum exists.
Scott Rothkopf is the Alice Pratt Brown Director of the Whitney Museum. Rothkopf began his career at the Harvard University Art Museums and Artforum International, joining the Whitney as a curator in 2009, eventually appointed as the Museum’s Nancy and Steve Crown Family Chief Curator and Senior Deputy Director. Now in his third year as the Alice Pratt Brown Director, Rothkopf has shaped a holistic exhibition program, strategic vision for the Museum and expansive audience access initiative. Under his leadership, the Whitney established three transformative free admissions programs, making the Museum free every Friday night, the second Sunday of each month, and, most recently, for all visitors 25 and under.
Over 17 years at the Whitney, Rothkopf has curated and co-curated more than a dozen exhibitions, including Sixties Surreal (2025–26), Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror (2021–22), Nick Mauss: Transmissions (2018), Laura Owens (2017), Open Plan: Andrea Fraser (2016), Human Interest: Portraits from the Whitney’s Collection (2016), Virginia Overton: Sculpture Gardens (2016), Mary Heilmann: Sunset (2015), Jeff Koons: A Retrospective (2014), Sinister Pop (2012–13), Wade Guyton OS (2012–13), Glenn Ligon: AMERICA (2011), and Singular Visions (2010).
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