Among the things Kathy Halbreich plans to examine in her new role as associate director of the Museum of Modern Art is MoMA's hefty $20 admission fee, and whom it may be keeping out.

MoMA's director, Glenn Lowry, recruited Ms. Halbreich, who is the outgoing director of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, largely for her track record at the Walker of working with contemporary artists and thinking across conventional disciplines. The large number of recent, relatively young hires at MoMA, including four new chief curators in the last two years, and the looming retirement of three major curators — chief curator for paintings and sculpture John Elderfield, chief curator-at-large Kynaston McShine, and deputy director (and director of P.S. 1) Alanna Heiss — suggest that the museum is in the midst of a significant directional and generational shift.