Bruce Lilly is stepping down after 11 years as executive director of the Minnesota Museum of American Art in downtown St. Paul. The museum's business director, Natalie Obee, will serve as interim boss during the search for a successor.

Lilly could not be reached for comment when the announcement was made late Friday. "That's a long tenure in this line of work, and I think he felt it was time to move on," board chairman David Kelly said.

A longtime St. Paul arts patron and banker by trade, Lilly took over at a time when the museum had closed temporarily to sort out its finances and to move to a new location. A similar challenge faces his replacement.

The museum has been housed since 2004 in an old garage in the former West Publishing building on Kellogg Boulevard. "We're going to have to move sometime in the next couple of years," Kelly said. "We're hoping to find a permanent home, with more space than we have now." As for its finances, they're "tolerable," he said. "It's always a struggle with a small arts organization, but we're getting by."

TIM CAMPBELL