Fired Director of Philadelphia Art Museum’s Complaint Against the Institution

of Ontario, where her leadership and vision quickly distinguished her. After eight successful years, Suda was selected as Director and CEO of the National Gallery of Canada, becoming the youngest director in a century of the storied institution’s history. There, Suda ushered the gallery into the modern era—prioritizing diversity, inclusion, access, and justice—and her tenure was hailed as a transformative, overwhelming success.
4. Suda’s reputation for modernization and revitalization led the Museum to recruit her as its next Director and CEO. The Museum’s Board believed she might bring to Philadelphia what she had brought to the National Gallery: renewed purpose, public trust, and forward-looking programming.
5. The Museum’s reputation had been deeply tarnished by scandals involving sexual harassment and employee mistreatment. But Suda believed in the Museum’s mission “to preserve, enhance, interpret, and extend the reach of its great collections in particular, and the visual arts in general, to an increasing and increasingly diverse audience as a source of delight, illumination, and lifelong learning.” She saw the potential to reestablish the Museum as a cultural beacon that found purpose and self-confidence in the community that it was founded to serve.
6. The Museum’s unique position, as a world-class institution embedded in an authentic and civically motivated community, further drew Suda to the role.
7. In Suda’s cover letter, however, Suda wrote that “Engaging the internal teams and union meaningfully will establish much-needed alignment across ranks; all voices must be heard, valued, considered, and integrated. The difficult and meaningful work of creating safety and holding space for these conversations is important to me. In the work ahead, the PMA must address and manage long-neglected conflict, politics, and inefficiencies in order to embrace its creative potential and serve the communities for whom it exists.”

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Case ID: 251101347