The new Hammer Museum director is on a mission to create a Westside Arts District

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Set us as preferred The Palisades and Eaton fires erupted on Zoë Ryan’s second day as director of the Hammer Museum at UCLA.Her family was in Philadelphia, and she barely knew her new colleagues, but she was suddenly responsible for an institution where staff members were being evacuated and employees or their relatives lost homes.It was an abrupt test for a leader succeeding Ann Philbin, who retired in 2024 after transforming the Hammer over a quarter-century through inventive exhibitions and high-profile expansion.

Hammer board chair Eric Esrailian recalled that Ryan immediately focused on the safety of the staff and museum community.“She conveyed empathy in that situation and reassured people: This is affecting everyone simultaneously,” he said.“It forced her to immediately reach out to the surrounding community … and to try to build some relationships.”Nearly two years in, Ryan is using the platform Philbin built as the foundation for the Hammer’s next era.

At an institution with a fiscal operating budget of about $30.4 million, she is seeking to place educational initiatives on equal footing with exhibitions, pursuing collaborations across the city, and positioning the Hammer as the anchor of a Westside arts district.“I take seriously the Hammer being a catalyst for art and ideas,” said Ryan, who grew up in Kent, England, and was curator of architecture and design at the Art Institute of Chicago before leading the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia.

“I want us to lean into that.That means supporting artists; it means supporting staff in doing really bold projects.”Ryan sees the Hammer as “making the art history of the future,” an ambition reflected in two fall retrospectives that bring greater attention to women long overlooked: the largest U.S.

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