Directors
Throughout its evolution from the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy to the Albright Art Gallery, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, and now the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, our museum has been led by dedicated and talented directors whose collective contributions have given rise to one of the world’s most extraordinary art collections. Among the museum’s past leaders are the first female director of a major art museum in the United States and a member of the Monuments Men during World War II.
Charles M. Kurtz
January 1905–March 1909

Cornelia Bentley Sage Quinton
October 1910–June 1924

William M. Hekking
March 1925–September 1931

Gordon B. Washburn
October 1931–February 1942

Dr. Andrew C. Ritchie
June 1942–July 1949

Edgar C. Schenck
September 1949–July 1955

Gordon M. Smith
September 1955–June 1973

Robert T. Buck, Jr.
July 1973–July 1983

Douglas G. Schultz
December 1983–December 2002

Louis Grachos
January 2003–December 2012

Janne Sirén, PhD
April 2013–Present