In the end, the very political activism that defined Laura Raicovich’s tenure as the president and executive director of the Queens Museum drove her out the door. On Friday, after just three years at the helm, Ms. Raicovich announced that she was stepping down.

“There are so many big things that art and culture have to contend with that are so wrong in the world,” Ms. Raicovich said in a telephone interview. “That’s where my focus and energy needs to be, and at the end of the day, I just felt that my vision and that of the board weren’t in enough alignment to get that done.”

There was not one specific precipitating event, Ms. Raicovich said, though she did mention that some board members had objected to her decision to close the museum on Donald J. Trump’s Inauguration Day. The museum instead invited members of the community in to make protest posters, buttons and banners.

In addition, Ms. Raicovich said, she recently proposed to the board that the museum — in collaboration with other institutions — consider becoming a kind of sanctuary space that connects immigrants with social services. “It was made very clear to me that that was not something that was of interest,” she said.