Mimi Gates to step down at Seattle Art Museum

Since Mimi Gardner Neil took over as director of Seattle Art Museum in 1994, she has steered the museum through an ambitious downtown expansion, guided the formation of the Olympic Sculpture Park, held steady through a landmark legal battle over a Nazi-pillaged painting, racked up an unprecedented wealth of gifts to the permanent collection — and changed her name to Mimi Gates in 1998, after marrying Bill Gates Sr., father of the Microsoft founder.

Now, Mimi Gates has announced she will retire in June 2009.

"A 15-year tenure as director of SAM is just right," Gates, 65, said in a news release. "The moment is ripe for robust succession, for the appointment of a new director with a fresh vision, and Seattle will attract a person of high caliber. ... Now I will embark on a new chapter in my life."

Gates' stint at SAM has brought the most dramatic changes in the institution's history and its largest capital campaign. To open the expansion and the sculpture park last year, the museum raised some $200 million. It also recently announced 1,000 promised gifts of art valued at $1 billion, a landmark in museum philanthropy. Under Gates' watch, SAM also established a new art-conservation department and broadened the museum's audience and attendance.

When she started at SAM, she told The Seattle Times she had not been looking for a new job. She was living in New Haven, Conn., directing the art gallery at Yale University, where she had earned her Ph.D. "But when Seattle [Art Museum] asked me, I had an intuitive sense: I felt it was a good fit." A fan of outdoor activities, Gates is fond of fishing, kayaking and cross-country skiing.

Former SAM curator of Chinese Art Jay Xu says his regard for Gates is unqualified. Xu left SAM to work at the Art Institute of Chicago and recently was hired as director of the San Francisco Asian Art Museum, where he will begin working June 16. "The time I had at Seattle Art Museum was the best in my career so far," Xu said by phone from Chicago. "I cannot be grateful enough to Mimi who really helped launch my career in the United States. ... She cares very much about the art. Her passion is very deep. Fundamentally, she has a wonderful sense of humility."

Gates fended off initial criticism of SAM's handling of the return of a Matisse "Odalisque" which had been given to the museum by collector Prentice Bloedel and was later identified as having been looted by the Nazis. SAM at first refused to return the painting, waiting until full information on its past could be traced. Eventually, SAM did return the painting to the heirs of Paul Rosenberg, but went on to sue the Knoedler Gallery in New York, which had sold the painting to Bloedel. SAM eventually received a cash settlement from Knoedler for an undisclosed amount.

Gates joined Yale University Art Gallery in 1975 as a curator and became director in 1987. With her leadership, the gallery opened a conservation laboratory and new departments in European and contemporary art. Gates earned a degree in art history at Stanford University, studied Chinese language and culture in Paris, earned a master's degree at the University of Iowa and a doctorate from Yale.

SAM trustees are beginning to organize a search for her successor.

Sheila Farr: sfarr@seattletimes.com