The Asian Art Museum has appointed Soyoung Lee as its next director and chief executive officer, ending its yearlong international search for a new leader.

Since 2018, Lee has served as the Landon and Lavinia Clay Chief Curator at the Harvard Art Museums in Cambridge, Mass., guiding its artistic vision and leading its training program, which offers mentorship to younger generations. Now, she hopes to foster a similar sense of inclusion at the San Francisco museum.  

“I’m excited to join this community of people who share a passion for the arts and cultures of Asia and the Asian diaspora,” she told the Chronicle. “San Francisco — and the larger Bay Area — is an important hub globally for all things Asian. I’m thrilled to be embedded in the institution whose compelling collections and stories I’ve followed for decades.”

Lee is expected to begin her new role in April at a date still to be determined.

Salle Yoo, chair of the Asian Art Museum Foundation and Asian Art Commission, said that she values Lee’s commitment to ensuring that the space fosters connection, noting that Lee is “a visionary leader with deep knowledge of, and passion for, Asian and Asian diasporic art and culture.”  

The Jakarta-born scholar is set to replace Jay Xu, who has led the institution since 2008 and was the first Chinese American to serve as a director at a major U.S. art museum. 

Under Xu’s leadership, the Asian Art Museum has hosted more than 100 exhibitions that showcased traditional Asian art and emerging Asian American art. He also helped grow its collection with more than 2,200 acquisitions, bringing the museum’s total to more than 20,000 objects. 

In 2023, Xu announced plans to retire in 2025 after his successor is chosen, telling the Chronicle that he wanted to assist in a smooth transition and “leave from a position of strength because it sets everyone up for success.” 

Xu’s last day will be April, right before Lee steps into the role, though he plans to continue his work with the President and Congress about the feasibility of creating and maintaining a National Museum of Asian Pacific American History and Culture in Washington D.C. 

“I look forward to building on the strong foundations laid by Dr. Jay Xu and the staff,” Lee said, adding that under her leadership she hopes the museum becomes “the go-to place for deeply moving, exciting, revelatory experiences, where traditions and the future mingle and explode in interesting ways.”

Lee received her bachelor’s, master’s and PhD in art history from Columbia University and is an alumna of the Center for Curatorial Leadership in New York City. She is currently a visiting scholar at Stanford University. 

Prior to her time at Harvard, Lee spent 15 years at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as its first-ever curator of Korean art. 

“Dr. Lee has a bold vision for (the) future,” Yoo said. “We are excited to see where Dr. Lee and the entire Museum team take us as we continue the work to connect the past, present, and future in ways that expand our understanding of what was, is, and what could be, and draws us closer together.” 

Reach Zara Irshad: [email protected]