Rebecca Lyons is new Pitzhanger Manor director

Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery in west London has announced a new Director.

The gallery in Ealing has nabbed Rebecca Lyons from the Royal Academy (RA). She'll take up the post on 1 September 2025.

Lyons has been the RA’s Director of Collections and Learning since 2019. Prior to this, she's worked for the National Trust, the National Gallery, Christie’s and between 2017 and 2021 was the Director of the Attingham Trust’s prestigious Royal Collection Studies.

She takes the reigns of Pitzhanger from Clare Gough who led the organisation since 2016, including steering it through the ambitious restoration project that returned the manor to Sir John Soane’s original designs.

Rebecca Lyons. Photo by Naomi Stokes

It reopened in its current form in 2019 with the addition of a new contemporary art gallery which has hosted shows by artists including Anish Kapoor, Julian Opie and Idris Khan. Gough's final year saw record-breaking visitor figures, with over 60,000 visitors coming through the doors in 2024/25, fueled by a hugely popular Grayson Perry tapestry exhibition.

Lyons will arrive just in time for the opening of what will be one of Pitzhanger's most anticipated exhibitions of the year, Howard Hodgkin: In a Public Garden. Opening in October, the retrospective will showcase the vibrant and emotionally charged print practice of the British artist.

Pitzhanger Manor. Photo by Andy Stagg

Howell James CBE, Chair of Trustees of Pitzhanger, said "Rebecca’s passion for the arts, vision for cultural engagement, deep involvement in arts, heritage and senior leadership experience make her ideally placed to guide Pitzhanger into its next chapter."

Commenting on her appointment, Lyons said she was "honoured" to be working for a museum with an "extraordinary blend of historic and architectural interest, high-quality contemporary exhibitions and committed learning and community programming, all in a beautiful setting."