Additional retirement news coming from within the New York museum world, which seems to have had a whole slew of big names departing throughout the year. This time around, it's Alanna Heiss, the founder and head of P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, who has announced that, after 37 years working with the famed space, she will be stepping down after tomorrow, the 31st, allowing someone else to take the reigns immediately come 2009. Though, like any driven person who could run something as massive and as important as P.S.1 for that long, retirement doesn't mean she's quitting everything and settling down for a nice quite couple of years. Quite the contrary:

Following her retirement from P.S.1, Heiss will launch Art International Radio (AIR), an organization that will be devoted to artistic, musical, performance, and experimental programs, in early 2009. Taking its lead from Heiss's brainchild Art Radio WPS1.org, Art International Radio will bolster a tradition of bringing thought-provoking conversations with noteworthy artists, curators, and academics to a listening audience.

A search committee will be established in early 2009 to lead the search for the next director of P.S.1.

Looking back to our post from October of last year, we're wondering if the MoMA's Kathy Halbreich is on that short list of potential replacements, as you might recall she was rumored to be undergoing some grooming for Heiss' spot before she took her current position.