In an interview, Brady, 59, who has worked for the museum for nearly three decades, said he was excited and hoped to be named to the post permanently.
"We're really about getting the city out on the water, both figuratively and literally. We hope to host visiting boats. We have an exhibit up now of artists' different visions of the Schuylkill and the Delaware River," he said.
"This location could be a tremendous asset to us and we are really determined to take full advantage of it."
About five years ago, the museum was rocked by scandal when veteran chief executive John S. Carter left under a cloud of allegations and later pleaded guilty to looting more than $1 million from the place he had run for 17 years.
A key museum financial angel and former board member, one-time state Sen. Vincent J. Fumo, was separately convicted of taking free luxury cruises on museum boats, among other offenses.
Carter and Fumo are both now in federal prison, Carter in Massachusetts and Fumo in Kentucky. In a civil action, the museum won a 2008 judgment ordering Carter to pay it back $2.4 million.
Its lawyer declined to say if it has collected any of that. William McLaughlin Jr., the museum's board chair, and Peter McCausland, its vice chair, did not return phone calls.
The museum moved outside the typical comfort zone of cultural hirings in selecting Gazzola, who had been an executive with a national tugboat-and-barge firm.
After firing Carter in 2006, the museum has been led by a succession of permanent and acting chief executives. At the helm the longest was Lori Dillard Rech, who resigned early last year after 21/2 years.
