Rales Succeeds Darren Walker in the Role Leading the Board of Trustees

Washington, DC—The National Gallery of Art announced today that Mitchell P. Rales has been elected as president, a leadership role on the Board of Trustees. Rales succeeds Darren Walker, who will remain a trustee.

Rales, who assumes the role immediately, has served on the National Gallery’s board since 2006 and will continue his work advancing the National Gallery’s mission alongside director Kaywin Feldman, his fellow trustees, and the museum’s executive team. Rales previously served as president of the National Gallery from 2019 to 2024.

“I look forward to partnering with Mitch as he resumes the role of president. For two decades as a trustee and a benefactor of the National Gallery, he has never wavered in his belief in the power of art and his commitment to serving the nation through his work at our institution. His trusted counsel and generous support have been key in expanding the museum’s reach through new programs and initiatives. We are deeply appreciative of Darren, Mitch, and all the trustees for their dedication to carrying out the National Gallery’s mission,” said Kaywin Feldman, director of the National Gallery. “Darren’s bold vision and incomparable expertise have been an invaluable asset to the National Gallery and its service to the nation during his tenure as president. I remain inspired by his boundless energy, creative drive, and steadfast belief in the power of philanthropy. I, along with the entire board of trustees and executive team, am grateful for his continued partnership as a trustee going forward.”

Throughout his previous tenure as president and his decades of service on the Board of Trustees and the Collectors Committee, Rales has provided astute counsel and helped steer the museum through periods of growth and change. A longtime benefactor of the National Gallery, Rales made a transformational gift of $116 million in April 2026 to endow Across the Nation, the museum’s nationwide loan partnership program launched in 2025. The landmark gift, the largest to endow programming in the museum’s history, funds the program in perpetuity, immeasurably strengthening the National Gallery’s ability to reach all Americans by loaning masterpieces from the nation’s collection to regional museums across the country.

Rales has also contributed major gifts to further institutional initiatives, including towards the renovation of the East Building in 2016 and for the acquisition of significant works meaningfully expanding the scope of the permanent collection. Among the works added to the museum’s collection with the support of Rales’s Glenstone Foundation are Jaune Quick-to-See Smith’s Target (1992), Simone Leigh’s Sentinel (2022), and Katharina Fritsch’s Hahn/Cock (2013). A noted art collector and philanthropist, Rales is also cofounder of Glenstone, a museum and foundation in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Walker, an internationally recognized philanthropist and a deeply experienced cultural-sector executive, has served as president of the National Gallery since October of 2024. Under his leadership as president, the National Gallery presented an ambitious slate of programming to commemorate America’s 250th anniversary, anchored by the launch of the Across the Nation loan initiative and through special exhibitions and programs that enabled deeper engagement with the museum’s extensive collection of American art.

Since Walker joined the Board of Trustees in 2019, he has established a major art acquisition fund, made possible by the Ford Foundation, to support the National Gallery’s commitment to artistic excellence and broadening the scope of art-historical narratives. The fund facilitated the acquisition of the Ross J. Kelbaugh Collection of 19th- and early 20th-century American photographs in 2023, which will be on view in the forthcoming exhibition Remember Me: Picturing African Americans in Early Photography, opening November 7, 2026.

Walker is currently president and chief executive of Anonymous Content, an award-winning global media company working across film, television, and branded content. He previously served as president of the Ford Foundation for more than a decade, leading one of the largest private foundations in the United States in its work advancing human welfare and achievement.  Walker will continue to serve the museum as a trustee.  

David Rubenstein, one of the country’s leading civic philanthropists, will continue to serve as chair of the board of trustees, and Indra Nooyi and Sarah F. Perot will continue in their roles as trustees. The National Gallery of Art Board of Trustees currently comprises nine members who contribute a wide range of perspectives and backgrounds to advance the museum’s mission and initiatives. They include four ex-officio trustees: the Chief Justice of the United States, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.  

About the National Gallery of Art

The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, is the nation's art museum, home to a renowned collection of over 160,000 works of art, from antiquity to today. Each year, the museum welcomes millions of people in person and online to explore art, creativity, and our shared humanity. Located on the National Mall, admission to the West and East Buildings, Sculpture Garden, special exhibitions, and public programs is always free.