Wellcome has announced that Melanie Keen, who has been Director of Wellcome Collection since 2019, will step down in the spring of 2026.
Melanie has led Wellcome Collection through a period of significant creative and organisational development, with a strong focus on health equity, inclusion and the relationship between art, culture, science research and lived experience.
Her leadership has strengthened Wellcome Collection’s commitment to engaging wider and more diverse audiences, while positioning the collections as a vital resource for understanding global histories and imagining more equitable futures where everyone’s experience of health matters.
During Melanie’s tenure, Wellcome Collection delivered influential exhibitions and events, deepened its care for collections and archives, and ensured the library remained an open, welcoming space for everyone.
Exhibition highlights include:
- 'Hard Graft: Work, Health and Rights' (2025), which foregrounded underrepresented workers and collective resistance and included a commission by Lindsey Mendick.
- Other major exhibition commissions by artists such as Jason Wilsher-Mills (2025) and Grace Ndiritu (2022), which challenged dominant narratives around disability, medicine and institutional care.
- '1880 THAT: Christine Sun-Kim and Thomas Mader' (2025), a powerful intervention centring Deaf language and experience.
- Larry Achiampong & David Blandy (2023), part of 'Genetic Automata', their series investigating where ideas about race come from and the role that science has played.
- Raqs Media Collective (2025) for 'Thirst: In Search of Freshwater', exploring water scarcity.
- The 2024 exhibition 'The Cult of Beauty' became a landmark moment, reaching younger and more diverse audiences than ever before, and achieving some of the highest numbers of visitors in the organisation’s history.
An early highlight of Melanie’s leadership was the creation of a pilot writers’ programme, now the Wellcome Collection Non-Fiction Awards, a core part of the programme that has supported new voices who have gone on to be published authors.
Melanie also shaped a renewed approach to presenting Henry Wellcome’s collections, encouraging dialogue between past and present through innovative interpretation and engagement. This approach was exemplified in displays such as 'The Kola Nut Cannot Be Contained' (2024), 'Zines Forever! DIY Publishing and Disability Justice' (2025), and 'Expecting: Birth, Belief and Protection' (2025 – 2026).
Driven by Melanie’s commitment to grow community partnerships, the museum has also developed meaningful relationships with communities of origin represented in its collections.
More recently, her work has fostered new collaborations and partnerships across the sector, including with the Science Museum, the British Museum and the Pitt Rivers Museum. During her leadership, Wellcome Collection was granted and continues to maintain Museum Accreditation, the UK standard for collections management, care, and public access, reflecting a strong commitment to stewardship and access.
To conclude her tenure, 'The Coming of Age' will open in March 2026, a major exhibition exploring experiences and perceptions of ageing, from adolescence to older age, through different perspectives in art, science and popular culture.
Under her direction, Wellcome Collection hosted the Beautiful Octopus Club, a club night celebrating learning-disability culture, with arts and creative community at its core. The musuem received the inaugural Museums + Heritage Visitor Accessibility Award in 2025, praised as “leading lights in disability discourse in museums and pushing the boundaries of what excellent, accessible exhibitions look like”. More recently, the organisation was named the Mayor of London’s Champion Employer for Skills and Progression, recognising its contribution to inclusive growth, skills and career development across the capital.
Melanie Keen said: “It has been an absolute privilege to serve as the Director of Wellcome Collection and to work with such talented colleagues and collaborators whom I admire and respect. The reason I joined Wellcome was its commitment to equity and inclusion, and I leave an organisation that has a growing and more inclusive audience, and a cadre of diverse artists represented across many aspects of the programme. With a brilliant forward plan and talented Wellcome Collection team in place, the organisation is well placed to build on this work into its next decade of excellence and evolution.”
John-Arne Røttingen (Chief Executive Officer, Wellcome) said: “Melanie’s leadership and vision have contributed to the development of Wellcome Collection as a space where scientific research, visual arts and collections, and lived experience are explored in inclusive and meaningful ways. She leaves a strong foundation for the future, and I want to thank her for her impact and collaboration.”
Beyond Wellcome, Melanie made a significant contribution to the wider UK cultural sector. She has judged the Museum of the Year (2020) and the Turner Prize (2023), and chaired the Wellcome Photography Prize (2025). She advises the Government Art Collection, and sits on the Board of Visitors at the Pitt Rivers Museum.
Sam Owen, Associate Director Strategy and Governance, will act as Interim Director, providing continuity while Wellcome Collection considers its next phase of leadership.