Film Academy Recruits Smithsonian Curator to Head L.A. Museum

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has tapped Kerry Brougher, the interim director and chief curator of the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum, to lead its planned museum of movie history in Los Angeles, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The newspaper cited sources familiar with the search process in reporting the as-yet-unconfirmed hire. It characterized the appointment of a respected art world figure with extensive museum experience as a coup for the $300-million project, which had drawn questions over how well it would balance Hollywood populism with intellectual rigor.

Mr. Brougher has been acting head at the Hirshhorn since June, when the modern-art museum’s director, Richard Koshalek, resigned. He has a master’s degree from UCLA in film and television history, held several curatorial posts at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles from 1982 to 1997, and spent three years as director of the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford, England.