The Long Island Museum, a Smithsonian affiliate dedicated to American history and art with a Long Island connection, recently announced that Sarah Abruzzi and Joshua Ruff have been appointed to the joint role of co-executive directors of the museum. Neil Watson, former executive director of the LIM, retired on Oct. 7 after nine years of leadership.
The new organizational structure builds upon the strong and collaborative work environment that Watson cultivated at the LIM during his tenure. Watson’s visionary plan of streamlining LIM’s work flow into two main areas is now in effect, with Ruff responsible for collections and programming, and Abruzzi responsible for operations.
Abruzzi is an accomplished executive and fundraising professional with over 20 years of experience in the nonprofit sector. Throughout her career, she has worked in all aspects of museum operations, including education, interpretation, collections management, volunteer coordination, fundraising, finance, HR, communications, and government relations.
She returned to the LIM in 2017 as director of major gifts and special projects, eventually being promoted to deputy director/director of advancement and external affairs in February 2019. Additionally, she previously served as director of Raynham Hall Museum in Oyster Bay, and of The Three Village Historical Society in Setauket.
Entering his 25th year at the LIM, including the last three as a deputy director and the last nine as the director of collections and interpretation, managing both the curatorial and education departments, Ruff has years of expertise in all facets of museum operations.
He is a graduate of Syracuse University with BAs in Broadcast Journalism and History, and an MA in History from Stony Brook University. After curating or co-curating nearly 70 exhibitions of a variety of scale and scope and many publications, Ruff is a recognized scholar of Long Island art and history.
LIBN Staff
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