WASHINGTON, DC.-Deputy director and chief curator Kerry Brougher has been named acting director of the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, effective Dec. 22.

Brougher joined the Hirshhorn in 2000 and has served as chief curator, director of art and programs and deputy director. He co-organized the upcoming exhibition "The Cinema Effect: Illusion, Reality and the Moving Image," a two-part exhibition that focuses on contemporary film and video work, which opens at the Hirshhorn in February 2008. He also co-organized "Visual Music," an exhibition with more than 100 works by more than 40 artists, ranging from abstract painting and experimental films to color organs and contemporary installations, which opened in 2005. Brougher and his co-organizers were awarded the International Association of Art Critics award in 2005 for this exhibition.

From 1997 to 2000, Brougher served as director of the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford in England, where he co-organized several notable exhibitions, including "Open City: Street Photographs since 1950," "Ed Ruscha" and "Notorious: Alfred Hitchcock and Contemporary Art."

From 1982 through 1997, Brougher held several curatorial positions at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. He organized several exhibitions at the museum, including "Hall of Mirrors: Art and Film since 1945" and "Jeff Wall."

Brougher received a master's degree (1978) in the history of film and television from the University of California, Los Angeles and a bachelor's degree (1974) in the history of art from the University of California, Irvine.

Kerry will serve as acting director of the museum while an eight-member committee under the direction of the Smithsonian's Office of the Under Secretary for Art searches for a new Hirshhorn director. Former director Olga Viso recently resigned to accept the position of director of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.