The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut

Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum director Harry Philbrick, who has led the Connecticut institution since 1996, will be stepping down at the end of the year. A terse statement from the museum provided few details about the circumstances of Philbrick's abrupt departure, other than to say that the announcement was issued by Mark L. Goldstein, the chairman of the museum's board of trustees, and that Philbrick — who is credited with "help[ing] direct a number of significant changes and periods of growth" — will "pursue other interests."Made in a season known for rounds of art-institutional musical chairs, the announcement still comes as a surprise, and does not contain statement from Philbrick himself. A 52-year-old director who got his start working for legendary art dealer Leo Castelli, Philbrick has more than doubled visitors to the off-the-beaten-path Ridgefield museum and, as of a few years ago, more than quadrupled the institution's operating budget to $2.5 million — largely by soliciting funds from Connecticut's wealthy art patrons. He also oversaw an innovative $9 million expansion to the museum designed by Tappé Associates Inc. that grew the institution's space fourfold and added versatile galleries that artists could break through and reconfigure for installations.

During his tenure, Philbrick — a onetime painter who displayed his own canvases in his office — brought numerous exhibitions to the Aldrich that garnered widespread attention, including "Velimir Chlebnikov," a 2006 show by Anselm Kiefer that gathered 30 canvases illustrating the bizarre theories of an obscure Russian poet in a purpose-built shed; "Bitter Fruit," a 2006 show by Paul Fusco that controversially exhibited photos of the caskets of dead Unites States servicemen being returned from Iraq; and a current show of Rackstraw Downes. In 2007, the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism awarded Philbrick the Elizabeth L. Mahaffey Arts Administration Fellowship for his accomplishments at the museum.