Nancy Yao, who had been tapped to serve as founding director of the Smithsonian’s forthcoming American Women’s History Museum in Washington, DC, has said she will not take up the role. Yao cited “family issues” as the reason for her withdrawal from the prestigious position. She had originally been slated to assume leadership on June 5, but the start of her tenure was delayed following the revelation in April, in the Washington Post, that she had settled a trio of wrongful termination lawsuits while she was president of New York’s Museum of Chinese in America (MoCA).
According to the Post, the suits stemmed from Yao’s termination of three employees who reported the sexual harassment of young women working at MoCA in junior positions or as interns. Yao asserted that the firings were owing to budgetary pressures on the small museum, but the paper obtained audio of Yao speaking at a meeting regarding one of the terminations in which she noted that the firing had “nothing to do with [MoCA’s] financial standing,” further affirming, “We’re doing really, really well.” On learning of the suits, the Smithsonian hired an outside firm to explore further. The results of the investigation have not been made public.
During her eight years as MoCA president, Yao elevated the once tiny institution’s profile and tirelessly fundraised on its behalf. The museum lost most of its vast archive of personal belongings, artifacts, and artworks reflecting Chinese American heritage when a massive fire ripped through the building in which they were stored in 2020. A $118 million transformation of MoCA’s Centre Street space, designed by Maya Lin, is expected to begin at the end of this year. Yao in 2021 faced allegations that, in order to make the renovation happen, she traded a $35 million concession from the city in exchange for MoCA’s “complicit support” of a nearby 29-story jail that detractors argued would not only serve a justice system targeting Black and brown citizens, but would edge out small businesses already struggling under the twin weights of the Covid-19 crisis and anti-Asian sentiment. Among those protesting were members of the pathbreaking artist collective Godzilla, a number of whom pulled out of a planned MoCA exhibition, resulting in its cancellation altogether. More artists withdrew their works from the museum’s collection.
The New York Times pointed out that Yao’s fundraising abilities would likely have been prized by the Smithsonian, given that the American Women’s History Museum is expected to cost roughly $375 million on its eventual opening, slated for a decade hence. Melanie A. Adams, director of the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum, will serve as interim director of the women’s museum until a permanent leader is found; Lisa Sasaki, who had held the temporary role ahead of Yao’s expected ascension, will move to another high-level position at a different Smithsonian institution.