Chicago art museum chief leaving

Robert Fitzpatrick, director of Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art since 1998, plans to step down in 2008. He took charge two years after the museum opened a new building and is credited with strengthening the institution’s financial position, curatorial staff and collections. An unusually versatile arts administrator, Fitzpatrick, 66, has been dean of the School of the Arts of Columbia University in New York, president and chief executive of EuroDisney in Paris, president of CalArts in Valencia and director of Los Angeles’ 1984 Olympic Arts Festival. In a statement released by the Chicago museum, he said that it is time for a new challenge.