The Frick appoints interim director
Judith Hansen O’Toole is making the rounds of Pittsburgh museums.
On Tuesday, the board of trustees of The Frick Pittsburgh announced that the former longtime director/ CEO of the Westmoreland Museum of American Art will become interim executive director of the museum in Point Breeze on Feb. 1.
She will replace Robin Nicholson, the current Frick executive director who is leaving after four years to become executive director/ CEO of Telfair Museums in Savannah, Ga.
Ms. O’Toole will oversee the day-to-day operations of the Frick while board members conduct a national search for a new executive director.
She retired from the Westmoreland museum in Greensburg on June 1, 2018, after serving as director/ CEO for 25 years.
She then became acting director of the Mattress Factory for three months beginning in mid-October 2018 after the board of the contemporary art museum on Pittsburgh’s North Side placed executive director Michael Olijnyk on temporary paid leave. Mr. Olijnyk was placed on leave following charges made against the museum with the Pittsburgh office of the National Labor Relations Board by a current employee and three former employees.
A settlement was reached between the NLRB and involved parties late last year, and the NLRB closed the investigation in early January. No one from the Mattress Factory could be reached Tuesday to find out who would oversee future operations at the museum.
Ms. O’Toole could not be reached Tuesday.
“We are very fortunate to have Judy’s leadership while the search committee works to identify the right long-term leader for The Frick Pittsburgh,” Chip Burke, chair of the board of trustees, said in the news release.
The Frick Pittsburgh is a 5-acre compound that includes the art museum; Clayton, the Gilded Age home of 19th-century industrialist Henry Clay Frick; a car and carriage museum; a cafe; and a greenhouse.
The Frick was established by Helen Clay Frick, an art collector and historian who was the steel tycoon’s only surviving daughter.