National Portrait Gallery Director to Step Down May 7, 2012, 3:05 pm The National Portrait Gallery in Washington is looking for a new director now that Martin E. Sullivan has announced he is stepping down next month. Mr. Sullivan, who joined the gallery in 2008, said he is leaving the top post because of health reasons, but that he will remain on as a Senior Scholar, according to a spokeswoman. Wendy Wick Reaves, the gallery's curator of prints and drawings, will serve as acting director while a search committee, headed by Richard Kurin, the Under Secretary for History, Art, and Culture, looks for a new chief.