 In 1975 she became associate director and chief curator at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, but resigned in 1989, prompted by the Corcoran's cancellation of a show of work by photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.Livingston had been on sabbatical, writing a book under a Guggenheim Fellowship when the show was cancelled ; when she returned, she made it clear that she would not have cancelled the show.Livingston had arranged the show which was financed in part by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).