WAUSAU – The Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum announced this week the retirement of Director Kathy Kelsey Foley.

Foley will officially retire Dec. 31, and Assistant Director Matt Foss will assume the role on Jan. 1, 2023.

Foley has served as director twice, her first tenure from 1987-1991. She returned to the Woodson Art Museum as director in March 1998.

“Thanks to Kathy’s leadership, the Woodson Art Museum has expanded and elevated the vision of the founding families, while celebrating our mission ‘To Enhance Lives through Art’ and maintaining the commitment to ‘Always Free Admission,’” said Board President John Tubbs in a news release. “Matt Foss has worked alongside Kathy for a dozen years and is highly qualified to lead the museum and continue the high standards established by Kathy.”

During Foley’s tenure, the Woodson Art Museum received its third re-accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums and most notably was recognized by the Institute of Museum and Library Services as one of only five museum recipients of the 2017 National Medal for Museum Service. The Woodson received the 2016 Wisconsin Governor’s Arts, Culture, and Heritage Tourism Award.

Foley was inducted as a Fellow of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters in 2014; received the Wisconsin Visual Art Achievement Award in 2016; and was honored by the Association of Midwest Museums in 2020 with the Distinguished Career Award.

Foley and Foss have worked together on multiple projects, including the museum’s 2012 building addition, interior renovations and, most recently, the Rooftop Sculpture Garden. Foss is now overseeing the construction of the Glass Box Studio, which will enable the expansion of the museum’s artist-residency program.

“My lengthy tenure at the Woodson Art Museum has been enormously rewarding,” Foley said in the release. “I am most proud of the museum staff and the dedication, creativity, and resiliency each demonstrates daily. Together, we tackled challenges, met deadlines and dreamed big.”

In recognition of Foley’s service and accomplishments, the museum’s Board of Directors awarded her the title director emerita.