Lisa Gold, who’s led Washington Project for the Arts since 2009, will join the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden as director of public engagement—a new role at the museum—on August 24.

Gold will head up the Hirshhorn’s public programs, artist lectures, and ARTLAB+, a free after-school digital art program for teenagers. She’ll replace Milena Kalinovska, who is leaving the museum. Kalinovska has been director of public programs and education post since 2004.

“I was not looking for a new gig,” Gold says. She has known Hirshhorn Executive Director Melissa Chiu for about 15 years; when Chiu joined the Hirshhorn last year and witnessed the dissolution of the Corcoran, she saw an opportunity to better integrate the Hirshhorn into the local arts scene. As the head of a membership organization for D.C. artists, Gold was a natural choice for a bridge-builder.

Gold points to WPA’s partnerships with local non-arts organizations as examples of the types of connections she hopes to make in her new role. In 2012, WPA worked with D.C. nonprofit Casey Trees, Control Arms, and the Organization of American States to exhibit a Pedro Reyes piece that melted down guns and turned them into shovels to plant trees. Casey Trees joined forces with WPA again last year to turn a temporary public art piece from the 5×5 Project, Peter Hutchinson‘s “Thrown Rope DC,” into a permanent tree line in a vacant lot in Southwest.

The WPA board is currently reviewing candidates for the executive director position.