Saying it's time for new leadership, Ellsworth Brown has resigned as president of Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh after 11 years at the helm.

Tony Tye, Post-Gazette Ellsworth Brown resigned as president of Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh yesterday. Click photo for larger image.

Brown, 61, of Point Breeze, announced his resignation at a board of trustees' executive committee meeting Wednesday night at the Duquesne Club.

Brown's resignation is effective immediately.

In a telephone interview yesterday, Brown said he has applied for a job outside Pittsburgh that encompasses museum and academic work. He would not say if he was a leading candidate nor would he name his potential employer.

Suzy Broadhurst, board chairwoman of The Carnegie, will continue to lead the board and serve as president of Carnegie Museums and Carnegie Library until Brown's successor is chosen.

Brown's exit comes as Carnegie Museums' trustees are formulating a three-phase plan for the institution's mission and governance.

Broadhurst said she and Brown had discussed his and the museum's future, in light of that effort.

"We've been talking for several months and he's really been doing some soul-searching," she said.

Brown and Broadhurst said the time was right.

"This was Ellsworth's decision. He resigned," Broadhurst said.

Brown said he decided to resign because he felt someone else should lead the Carnegie through its strategic planning process.

"It's a very complicated place with a lot of moving parts," Brown said. "It takes a lot of energy to keep those parts moving the right way, and as we approached this meeting, it was the end of the first phase of the three-phase strategic plan."

The next two phases "will require someone to do another five-year run. I began to think a year ago about whether I really wanted to do that for another five years."

The Carnegie museums include the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, the Carnegie Science Center and The Andy Warhol Museum. The four museums had a combined budget of about $53 million in 2003.

The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh includes the main branch in Oakland and 19 other branches.

Tom Sokolowski, director of The Andy Warhol Museum, said Wednesday's announcement was a surprise.

"People applauded when he made his speech, which was very emotional," Sokolowski said, adding that Brown told the board that since last year, he has been deciding whether to resign.

Brown came here in 1993 after running the Chicago Historical Society and arrived about two years after the Carnegie Science Center opened. His tenure included increased attendance, the addition of The Andy Warhol Museum, and, more recently, staff cuts necessitated by a downturn in the economy.

The Carnegie Library system began to revamp its Oakland location this year while completing renovations of its Brookline and Homewood branches. The Squirrel Hill branch also is getting a makeover.

"I'm very proud of what the library has been able to achieve. We are on the way with the new Dinosaur Hall. The [capital] campaign is doing well but it's not at the pace that it was," Brown said. "We launched the campaign before the market dropped."

Asked what he thought his legacy would be, Brown said the institution has become more "people-centric."

"If I had to think of myself as an agent of change, with both the library and the museums we have moved them a long distance down the path to marketing," Brown said, "by which I mean understanding the wants and needs of the people we serve."

He touted the science center's award last year from the Institute of Museum and Library Services for its education outreach and community partnerships.

"I'm especially proud of having introduced two museums to Pittsburgh," he said, adding that while the science center opened before he arrived, it wasn't stabilized.

He also changed the institution's structure, giving the directors of each of the museums more autonomy and responsibility.

Maxwell King, president of The Heinz Endowments, praised Brown for hiring "a strong array of museum directors. One of the marks of a really successful leader is that you bring in the right talent."

Two of Brown's choices for directors were non-traditional -- and controversial.

To head Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, he hired former steel industry executive Herb Elish, who reorganized and redesigned the central library in Oakland, and renovated or relocated some branch libraries and the historic Hazelwood branch.

Former astronaut Jay Apt, who in May 1997 became director of the natural history museum, established computer-based, interactive exhibits but provoked many longtime staffers, including some scientists, by reducing the number of specimens on view.

"He took a museum that was stuck in the mid-20th century and moved it forward in time, and in the process created a lot of friction that probably had to be created," Brown said. Apt resigned in February 2000.

Brown's legacy also includes an aborted expansion of the science center.

The Carnegie hired Parisian architect Jean Nouvel to design a $90 million addition, but when it came in over budget, the two sides could not agree on a solution and eventually reached an out-of-court settlement.

The possibility of a high-profile expansion now at the science center is remote, Brown said. In January 2003, Carnegie Museums eliminated its film and video section and permanently laid off 17 full-time and four part-time employees.

The museum also announced that six employees resigned voluntarily and 22 vacant positions would not be filled. The budget cuts were seen as necessary because of increased expenses and a decline in revenue from the museums' $180 million investment portfolio, which was valued at $255 million in 1999.

Brown, whose avocations include piloting small planes, chaired the board of the Greater Pittsburgh Convention and Visitors Bureau from 1999 through 2000. Joe McGrath, president and chief executive officer of the visitors bureau, called Brown "an innovative and deep thinker. He's not one of these guys who say, 'Don't call me at home.' He was always there to respond."

Broadhurst said board members asked her to serve as president because they believed that was the best way to assure continuity.

"I'm counting on them to be guidance for me as well. I'm wearing two hats but it's not for an extended period of time. I don't foresee any problem with that. It's allowed by our bylaws."

Broadhurst dismissed the suggestion that some board members were dissatisfied with Brown over the pace of the capital campaign.

"We had started to go into a quiet phase when we had 9/11, which caused the problems with the market. We chose to slow it up, just for those reasons. If people are dissatisfied with that, I'm not sure what could be done about it," Broadhurst said.