Guggenheim curator since 2006
Alexandra Munroe, PhD, is the Samsung Senior Curator of Asian Art at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Since joining the Guggenheim in 2006, where she heads the Asian Art Program for the museum and its global affiliates, she has organized The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860–1989, which won Best Thematic Exhibition in New York City by the International Art Critics Association (AICA) for 2009; and co-organized Cai Guo-Qiang: I Want to Believe, which was among the best attended exhibitions in the museum's history. Its catalogue won the 2008 Wittenborn Prize for outstanding scholarship, design, and production. She is internationally recognized as a pioneer in the field of modern Asian art for her landmark exhibitions and publications including Yayoi Kusama: A Retrospective; Japanese Art After 1945: Scream Against the Sky; The Art of Mu Xin; and YES YOKO ONO, which won first prize for Best Museum Show Originating in New York City in 2000 from the International Association of Art Critics (AICA). AICA also awarded Munroe, as project director, first prize for Best Thematic Show in New York City for Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture, curated by Takashi Murakami, in 2005. She served as Vice President of Arts and Culture at the Japan Society, New York, and Director of Japan Society Gallery from 1998–2005. She holds a BA from Sophia University, Tokyo, an MA from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and a PhD in history from New York University, where her research was modern East Asian intellectual history. She serves as a trustee on the boards of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University; the United States–Japan Foundation; the Korea Society; and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.