Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, Director

The New York University Institute of Fine Arts (IFA) has named Joan Kee, PhD as the Judy and Michael Steinhardt Director.

As Director, Kee will lead one of the world’s most respected graduate schools and research centers in art history, archaeology, and art conservation.   The Institute has produced many of the top art historians, museum directors, curators, and conservators.

Kee, a respected scholar of modern and contemporary art of Asia and the United States, focuses her research on art and the law, comparative diaspora studies, and art and digital communications.

Among many other honors, she was the Inaugural Ford Foundation Scholar in Residence at the Museum of Modern Art and has received fellowships from the Clark Art Institute, the Tate Research Institute, the Kress Foundation, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art. She has served as chair of the Board of Advisors for the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts and as a member of the Arts and Culture Committee of the Asia Society’s Global Board of Trustees. She is also a contributing editor of Artforum and editor-at-large for the Brooklyn Rail.

Kee most recently served as a professor of the history of the art at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.  

She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in the history of art from Yale University and holds a law degree from Harvard Law School and a PhD from the IFA.

Sarah James led this search with Ryan Leichenauer and Siobhan Hanley.

You can read the full press release here.