What is not but could be if. Courtesy Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

The post-Bubble shakeup at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden continued today with the sudden resignation of the chair of its board of trustees.

In a letter to her fellow trustees and Smithsonian Secretary G. Wayne Clough, which was obtained by The Washington Post, Constance Caplan accused the Hirshhorn’s board and the Smithsonian Institution at large of being wracked by a “contentious manner and lack of inclusiveness.”

Caplan’s departure comes only a few weeks after Richard Koshalek stepped down as the museum’s director upon the cancelation of the long-planned but constantly frustrated Bubble project. In her letter, Caplan does not cite the Bubble specifically, but says that her resignation is, in part, the result of the Hirshhorn shifting toward more pedestrian programming.

…Of even greater concern to me is the fundamental direction that I now see the Hirshhorn taking, with both overt and tacit approval by the Smithsonian: a regression to programming that imitates a predictable pattern at many other modern and contemporary museums. I certainly understand the serious financial challenges and constraints now at hand; I also deeply agree that trustees should not be involved in the artistic decisions that are clearly the purview of the director and staff.

Caplan’s tenure as the head of the Hirshhorn’s board was a short-lived one. She took over last fall for J. Tomilson Hill; Caplan is the seventh board member to leave in the past year and the third since early June.