The announcement of three new directors at Minneapolis art museums in 2007 signaled the end of eras and the beginning of major transitions. Elsewhere, artists worked, galleries showed and collectors bought, sold and lent art, but the changes at the top are likely to be the most significant.

At Walker Art Center, card-carrying avant gardist Kathy Halbreich announced her departure after 16 years in which she raised $100 million to transform an intimate modernist institution into a sprawling labyrinth of galleries, restaurants, theater and film sites. In November, Halbreich headed to New York, where she will occupy a new post at the Museum of Modern Art advising on the museum's contemporary programs and acquisitions.

Her successor, Olga Viso, arrives in January from 12 years at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington D.C., where she made a point of showcasing contemporary artists as well as their work, a popular outreach program that she may import at the Walker. The question for Viso is whether to continue Halbreich's aggressive championing of often obscure and esoteric international art, or to try to expand the center's audience by showcasing big-name 20th century talents. As the Walker's attendance plateaued in recent years (at a very respectable but stagnant 400,000 annually) Halbreich reluctantly turned to such familiar names as Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and Frida Kahlo in an effort to boost crowds.

In an exit interview, Halbreich said the goal of such shows was "to encourage repeat visitors. The question is, are we a big enough community to make these exhibitions financially feasible?" Those are among the challenges awaiting Viso.

The Walker had a stellar run of exhibitions in 2007, including a handsome retrospective of racially provocative images by Kara Walker, a fascinating demonstration of Picasso's impact on American artists and an important Kahlo retrospective that continues through Jan. 20.

From Memphis to Minneapolis

At the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, director William Griswold decamped after 23 months for his dream job as head of the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City, a recently expanded jewel-box institution where he had previously been a curator.

His successor, Kaywin Feldman, arrives in January as the institute's first female director. Like Griswold, she is a graduate of the Courtauld Institute at the University of London, England. His prior experience, however, included a stint as acting director of the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, a huge institution. Feldman, by contrast, comes from the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in Tennessee, a comparatively tiny institution with a staff of 60 and membership of 3,000 (vs. the institute's 254 staff and 25,500 members).

Her challenge will be to master the shift to a vastly bigger place, to redefine institutional priorities and to hire new staff to fill curatorial posts emptied by retirement, death and departures. Curators are needed for photography, prints and drawings, contemporary, African and decorative art.

Fortunately, Griswold completed a $100 million capital campaign, oversaw completion of a $50 million addition and supervised reinstallation of the permanent collection, so the museum's facilities and finances are in good order. The year's key shows included a wonderfully fresh collection of drawings assembled by California collectors Joseph and Deborah Goldyne, an expansive display of grand Nordic landscape paintings and a choice little exhibit of Georgia O'Keeffe abstractions that ends Jan. 6.

From Russia with love

The city's newest art museum, the Museum of Russian Art, also hired a new director, Judi Dutcher, an art-loving lawyer and former state auditor. She replaces founding president Brad Shinkle, who remains as mentor and director of the museum's education program. The five-year-old museum scored a coup this year when it successfully staged its first solo retrospective of paintings by the Communist-era hero Geli Korzhev, including pieces on loan from state museums in Moscow and Leningrad. That show ends Jan. 5.

Former Twin Cities art collectors Gordon Locksley and George Shea, now residents of Florida and California, respectively, emerged as major lenders and potential benefactors of the MIA and Walker. They've lent the MIA two galleries of much needed American pop and European contemporary art, including a stunning Christian Boltanski installation. They also recently gave the MIA a huge, charming puppy-dog sculpture by contemporary Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara.

Other highlights of the year include, at Groveland Gallery, Stella Ebner's thoughtful observed woodcuts of daily life and Michael Kareken's arresting paintings of recycled trash; the Weisman Art Museum's terrific display of contemporary American Indian art and craft (up through Jan. 13); contemporary Mexican woodcuts and etchings at Highpoint Center for Printmaking, and gloomy, poetic and compelling images of China's Three Gorges dam and its impact, at the Minnesota Center for Photography through Feb. 10.

In passing: We note with regret the demise of the Minnesota Crafts Council after 35 years, and the unexpected death of Ted Hartwell, 73, the eloquent, generous and always insightful curator of photography at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

Mary Abbe • 612-673-4431