[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/50e963fde3e0042ebf2dbd4fe1bd8a2fcee829d9-2250×1500-1.jpeg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tJanne Sir\u00e9n, the director of the Buffalo AKG Art Museum in Upstate New York, will depart his post in October after more than a decade, opening up yet another top role at a US art institution.<\/p>\n
\n\tSir\u00e9n oversaw the museum as it expanded dramatically in 2023, adding another building to its campus that doubled the AKG\u2019s square footage. The expansion, which cost $230 million, was well-received, both within the art press and by locals, who flocked to the museum. The AKG reported that, in the year following the reopening, the museum received 340,000 visitors, a record for the institution.<\/p>\n
\n\tBut Sir\u00e9n\u2019s leadership has more recently come under scrutiny in the local Buffalo media.<\/p>\n
\n\tHis departure was announced by the museum nearly three months after the Buffalo News<\/em> reported that he had used a museum loan to help finance his $710,000 home. The Erie County Comptroller\u2019s Office alleged that Sir\u00e9n had failed to pay off the museum\u2019s loan, leading one representative to say she was \u201cnot sure why.\u201d The Buffalo News<\/em> reported that the loan \u201cappears to violate state laws governing nonprofit organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe AKG said in a statement at the time that Sir\u00e9n\u2019s loan was \u201ca relatively common practice in executive recruitment,\u201d and added that the museum operates \u201cfull compliance with all applicable laws and audit standards.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe museum\u2019s release announcing Sir\u00e9n\u2019s departure did not mention the loan at the center of the Buffalo News<\/em> report. It also did not state where Sir\u00e9n was headed next.<\/p>\n \n\tIn a statement on Wednesday, Sir\u00e9n said that he will now \u201ccarve out time for my family and for focused, impactful projects within the art world, working globally as a family ensemble with and for artists, museums and cultural organizations, companies and governments, and private individuals. I will also write and hopefully memorialize some legs of the journey from my native Finland, the land of songs and lakes, to Buffalo and beyond. Love, Learn, and Live\u2014that\u2019s my motto.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHe joined the AKG in 2013, having previously led the Helsinki Art Museum and the Tampere Art Museum, both in Finland. While in Finland, he had also attempted to bring a Guggenheim outpost to Helsinki, to no avail\u2014the city council rejected the plan.<\/p>\n \n\tUnder his tenure, Scandinavian art became a specialty of the AKG, which now has a dedicated gallery for art of the Nordic region. The museum recently staged \u201cNorthern Lights,\u201d a survey of landscapes produced in Scandinavia and Canada\u2014whose border is close to Buffalo\u2014between the late 19th and early 20th centuries.<\/p>\n \n\tThe museum noted that he had greatly expanded the institution\u2019s collection, which grew by just under 2,000 objects under Sir\u00e9n. Among the additions to the AKG holdings in that time was the estate of Marisol, a Pop artist who bequeathed it to the museum upon her death in 2016; the museum organized an acclaimed traveling retrospective of her art that first opened in 2023 and landed at the museum the following year. The museum also touted its acquisition of a large-scale landscape by Anselm Kiefer, a German painter whose foundation counts Sir\u00e9n as its president.<\/p>\n \n\tAlice F. Jacobs, president of the AKG board, said in a statement that Sir\u00e9n\u2019s achievements were \u201cunique,\u201d adding, \u201cUnder his leadership, the museum has celebrated its deep community roots and international presence; combining architecture, programs and networks to grow and sustain the museum for generations.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/buffalo-akg-art-museum-janne-siren-departs-1234783064\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/50e963fde3e0042ebf2dbd4fe1bd8a2fcee829d9-2250×1500-1.jpeg?w=1024″] Janne Sir\u00e9n, the director of the Buffalo AKG Art Museum in Upstate New York, will depart his post in October after more than a decade, opening up yet another top role at a US art institution. Sir\u00e9n oversaw the museum as it expanded dramatically in 2023, adding another building to its campus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1910273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1910273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1910273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1910273\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1910273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1910273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1910273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}