Mystic — Mystic Seaport Museum has chosen Peter Armstrong, an accomplished museum professional with more than 25 years of experience on two continents, to be its next president and chief executive officer, the board of trustees has announced.

Armstrong is senior director of museum operations and education for the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, an educational institution of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

The Mystic Seaport Museum board also announced the appointment of Christina Connett Brophy as senior vice president of curatorial affairs and senior director of museum galleries.

“We are excited about the appointments of Peter and Christina as they bring well-honed, complementary talents to MSM,” Michael Hudner, the board’s chairman, said in a statement. “Peter has extensive management skills and experience as director of operations of a large and complex museum organization combined with great marketing know-how. Christina brings outstanding maritime museum curatorial experience and demonstrated success in innovative programming and exhibitions development.”

As senior director of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, Armstrong oversees education, collections, exhibitions and interpretation, and directs two major museums and their living history sites. He led the transition from the Yorktown Victory Center — a small museum with some living history areas — to the new, $50-million American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, which opened in April 2017.

In 2019, he oversaw the creation of the special exhibition TENACITY, which focused on the arrival of the first women to Jamestown, and Forgotten Soldier, which features the personal stories of enslaved and free African Americans who fought on both sides of the Revolutionary War.

Armstrong came to the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation from the United Kingdom’s National Museum of Arms and Armour, also known as the Royal Armouries. The Royal Armouries has three museums, the most famous of which is the Tower of London. During his tenure, Armstrong developed and promoted several major exhibitions, including "Henry VIII: Dressed to Kill" at the Tower of London.

"Mystic Seaport Museum has a worldwide reputation for excellence, quality and good old-fashioned fun,” Armstrong said. “As the museum heads towards its centenary, I am excited to be able to play a role in continuing the legacy of the retiring president, and to work with the board and the Mystic team to deliver a modern, relevant, diverse, and community-focused future.”

Brophy is the Douglas and Cynthia Crocker endowed chair for the chief curator at the New Bedford (Mass.) Whaling Museum, where she has been a senior executive for seven years. She has curated more than 30 exhibitions, notably “A Spectacle in Motion: The Grand Panorama of a Whaling Voyage ‘Round the World” and “A Wild Note of Longing: Albert Pinkham Ryder and a Century of American Art,” which will open in June 2021.

Steve White, Mystic Seaport Museum’s outgoing president and CEO, is working to ensure a smooth transition of leadership as the museum navigates the ongoing challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the board said.