The Baltimore Museum of Industry is looking for a new executive director.

After nearly 12 years, Anita Kassof will retire in early 2027, the Locust Point museum announced in a news release Thursday.

The BMI’s board of trustees will conduct a national search for the successor to Kassof, who will remain in the job through the beginning of the new year.

Kassof, who took the role at the museum dedicated to human labor in February 2015, said in a statement that leading the BMI “has been one of the great privileges of my career.”

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“This wasn’t an easy decision, but my husband and I are looking forward to welcoming our first grandchild later this year, and this felt like the right time to begin a new chapter,” Kassof said.

Kassof came to the BMI, located at 1415 Key Highway, from New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage, where she served as deputy director. Other prior stops included the Jewish Museum of Maryland, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Baltimore City Life Museums.

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At the BMI — a nonprofit that preserves and documents the region’s industrial and technological histories — Kassof replaced Roland Woodward, who retired in 2014.

Under Kassof’s leadership, the BMI finished preservation efforts such as the restoration of Bethlehem Steel’s historic “whirley” crane and presented the exhibit “Echoes from the Key Bridge,” a multiyear project documenting the bridge’s tragic 2024 collapse.

BMI board Chair Jay Nwachu commended Kassof for helping to “build a stronger, more visible” museum. The BMI was founded in 1977.

“She has positioned the museum for a successful next chapter, and the board is committed to honoring that legacy by conducting a search that brings the right leader to this extraordinary institution,” Nwachu said in a statement.