Asian Art Museum of San Francisco Appoints Dr. Soyoung Lee as Director and CEO

An Esteemed Arts Executive and Trailblazing Asian Art Scholar,Lee will Serve as the Institution's Next Barbara BassBakar Director and CEO

SAN FRANCISCO,Jan. 15,2025 -- The Board of Trustees of the Asian Art Museum Foundation and the Asian Art Commission today appointed Dr. Soyoung Lee as the next Barbara Bass Bakar Director and CEO of San Francisco's Asian Art Museum—Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art & Culture. She will start in April 2025.

Dr. Soyoung Lee,newly appointed Barbara Bass Bakar Director and CEO of the Asian Art Museum

Lee joins the Asian Art Museum from the Harvard Art Museums where she has served as the Landon and Lavinia Clay Chief Curator since 2018. At Harvard,she led the museums' artistic vision for collections-building and exhibitions,and its highly regarded Museum Training program,mentoring the next generation of museum professionals. She co-curated the exhibitions Future Minded: New Works in the Collection (2024) and Earthly Delights: 6,000 Years of Asian Ceramics (2022).

"This is an exciting moment for the museum," said Salle Yoo,Chair of the Asian Art Museum Foundation and Asian Art Commission. "As a leading scholar of Asian art and culture,Dr. Lee brings a deep understanding of what is happening in Asian and Asian American art now,its connection to the past,and a bold vision of where it may lead in the future."

"I have long admired the Asian Art Museum," said Lee. "What a singular honor to be leading this premier institution,and in the beautiful city of San Francisco,with its significant connections to the Asia-Pacific region and thriving pan-Asian community. It is thrilling to imagine charting an audacious path for the future of Asian and Asian diasporic art and culture—for everyone to experience."

Prior to the Harvard Art Museums,Lee spent 15 years at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As the Met's first-ever curator for Korean art,Lee transformed the scope and impact of Korean art and culture—at both the museum and,more broadly,in the U.S. cultural landscape. Her publications include Diamond Mountains: Travel and Nostalgia in Korean Art (2018),Silla: Korea's Golden Kingdom (with Denise Patry Leidy; 2013),and Korean Buncheong Ceramics from the Leeum,Samsung Museum of Art (with Jeon Seung-chang; 2011).

She received her B.A.,M.A.,and Ph.D. in art history from Columbia University.

Learn more about the Asian Art Museum at www.asianart.org and find the full press release here.