Takes over in Spring 2025

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF (PNAN) – Chosen as the Barbara Bass Bakar Director and CEO of the Asian Art Museum—Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art & Culture, Dr. Soyoung Lee assumes her new role in April 2025.

     “I have been a longtime admirer of the Asian Art Museum,” says 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.” 

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).

Born in Jakarta, Indonesia, Dr. Lee has lived in Seoul, Tokyo, Stockholm, London, Los Angeles, New York and Cambridge, MA. For more of Lee’s career paths, see: https://about.asianart.org/introducing-our-new-director.