SF Asian Art Museum appoints Lee So-young as CEO

SF Asian Art Museum appoints Lee So-young as CEO. January. 17, 2025 07:46. by Min Kim kimmin@donga.com.
A Korean-American curator has been appointed to lead a major art museum in the United States for the first time. The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco announced on Thursday the appointment of Dr. Lee So-young as its next director and chief executive officer. “Lee brings a deep understanding of what is happening in Asian and Asian American art. She has demonstrated creativity and openness in bringing art to broader audiences,” said Salle Yoo, chair of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco Foundation and Asian Art Commission.

Lee spent 15 years as the first curator of Korean American art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she organized exhibitions such as Diamond Mountains: Travel and Nostalgia in Korean Art (2018), Silla: Korea's Golden Kingdom (2013) and Korean Buncheong Ceramics from the Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art (2011), among other exhibitions. Since 2018, she has served as Chief Curator at the Harvard Art Museum, where she has led collections-building and exhibitions and a museum training program.

Dr. Lee will start in April this year. “What a singular honor to be leading this premier institution in the beautiful city of San Francisco, which has significant connections to the Asia-Pacific region and is home to a thriving pan-Asian community. It is thrilling to imagine charting an audacious path for the future of Asian and Asian diasporic art and culture,” noted Lee.