Michael Govan

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Michael Govan (born 1963) is the CEO and director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Before joining LACMA, he led the Dia Art Foundation and worked as deputy director of the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Early life: Govan was born in North Adams, Massachusetts, and grew up in Arlington, Virginia. His family were art collectors. He attended Sidwell Friends School and then Williams College, where he studied art history and earned a BA in 1985. He began graduate studies at UC San Diego but left to work with Thomas Krens at the Guggenheim, eventually becoming Krens’s deputy director and helping oversee the Guggenheim Bilbao project.

Dia Art Foundation: From 1994 to 2006, Govan ran Dia in New York. He helped create Dia:Beacon, a large museum in Beacon, New York, housed in a former Nabisco box factory. The project expanded Dia’s collection and boosted the town’s revival, though some critics opposed closing Dia’s West 22nd Street space. He supported major site works by artists like James Turrell and Michael Heizer and pushed for the City project in Nevada to be protected as a national monument.

LACMA era: Govan joined LACMA in 2006 with a goal to rethink the encyclopedic museum. Under his leadership, LACMA has added thousands of works and expanded its campus with two Renzo Piano buildings. Attendance rose significantly, reaching about 1.6 million visitors a year by the mid-2010s. A major new building, the David Geffen Galleries by Peter Zumthor, is planned to open in 2026. The space is designed to be non-hierarchical, encouraging visitors to explore in their own way.

Public art and criticism: Govan has commissioned notable public artworks for LACMA, including Urban Light by Chris Burden and Levitated Mass by Michael Heizer. The museum’s profile grew in part because of these works. Some critics have challenged the cost and plans for the Zumthor project and the idea of reorganizing curatorial departments. A proposed merger with MOCA in 2013 was not approved.

Personal life: Govan is married to Katherine Ross and has two daughters. He is a licensed private pilot and owns a small plane. He has lived in a Ray Kappe–designed Los Angeles home and maintains a vacation home in East Hampton, New York.