Bessire to depart ICA for National Gallery

Paul Bessire, a key figure in the Institute of Contemporary Art's new waterfront building project, will leave the museum in early August to take a senior position at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Bessire, 43, has been the ICA's director of external relations since 2000, overseeing the $62 million fund-raising campaign now underway to pay for a new museum under construction on Fan Pier. The ICA has so far raised more than $34 million toward the project and has also placed its current home on Boylston Street up for sale. The new building is set to open in the fall of 2006.

''I love the ICA, I love the project, I love the people involved," said Bessire. ''But these positions don't come along very often. This was just too good."

Bessire becomes the National Gallery's chief development officer in September. He said he was offered the job in May but didn't accept it for a month. He was torn, he said, about leaving the ICA in the middle of a project he had helped lead. The job offer also means uprooting his family. A native of New York, Bessire came to Boston in 1994 to take a job in the Museum of Fine Arts marketing department. He left the MFA in 2000 for the ICA.

''Paul is exceptional on the relationship side of things," said MFA deputy director Patricia Jacoby. ''He didn't let a day go by when he didn't touch base with some of his contacts. Not too many people are asked to go to Washington to schmooze with all the corporate people and political people, and that's where Paul will excel."

Bessire's new job will come at a vastly different institution. The National Gallery has a $105 million annual budget; the ICA's is $5.4 million.

Geoff Edgers can be reached at gedgers@globe.com.