Introducing Our New Director

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 14, 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. 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’ collections-building and exhibitions, as well as 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 Asian Art 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 connections to the past, and a bold vision of where it may lead in the future. She has also demonstrated creativity and openness in bringing art to broader audiences and has successfully led efforts to make museums a place of connection — a core focus of the Asian Art Museum’s mission and strategic plan.” 

“I have been a longtime admirer of the Asian Art Museum,” noted Dr. Lee. “What a singular honor to be leading this premier institution, and 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 — for everyone to experience.” 

Before her time at the Harvard Art Museums, Dr. Lee spent 15 years at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As the Met’s first-ever curator for Korean art, Dr. Lee transformed the scope and impact of Korean art and culture — both at 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). 

Dr. Lee served as Trustee at Large of the Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC) from 2017 to 2023, also serving as the Chair of its Finance & Audit Committee (2019–2020). She is an alumna of the Center for Curatorial Leadership (2018) and a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University (2024–25). She received her B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in art history from Columbia University.

Born in Jakarta, Indonesia, Dr. Lee has lived in Seoul, Tokyo, Stockholm, London, Los Angeles, New York, and Cambridge, MA.