Yaddo has named Cyra Levenson as its next president, the artists' residency announced this week. Levenson, currently deputy director of learning and engagement at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation in New York, will take up the post on November 16. She succeeds Elaina Richardson, who is stepping down after twenty-six years at the helm of the nonprofit organization. Levenson arrives with a background that bridges museum education and artistic practice. Yaddo's board chair Peter Kayafas said she brings "a rare combination of strategic leadership, intellectual depth, and hands-on program experience," adding that she is herself a visual artist who understands from the inside what a residency like Yaddo means to the artists and writers it hosts. In a statement, Levenson said that for a hundred years Yaddo has been dedicated to creative people, to practice and to the magic that happens in community. "Artists have a unique ability to see what doesn't yet exist and to metabolize what is happening in the world in ways that others can digest and gain nourishment from," she said. The appointment places her in charge of one of the country's most storied creative retreats as it enters its second century, with Kayafas saying the board could not be more delighted to have her lead Yaddo into its next hundred years. The leadership change comes as Yaddo continues its long-running mission of offering uninterrupted time and space to creative practitioners. Richardson's twenty-six-year tenure oversaw the organization through a period of significant expansion in its fellowship programs and public profile, making the selection of her successor one of the most closely watched appointments in the American residency world this year.