Dr. Jay Xu has served as Director and CEO of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco since 2008. He spearheaded to successful conclusion by 2020 the Transformation Project, which involved expanding the museum’s mission to include Asian American art and culture, launching contemporary art, expanding exhibition and public spaces, renovating collection galleries and the education classroom, and investing in digital technology, all underwritten by a $100 million campaign, which he led.
In 2015, Jay was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2022, he was appointed to serve on the US Congressional Commission to Study the Potential Creation of a National Museum of Asian Pacific American History and Culture. In 2024, he was elected to the governing board of the American Alliance of Museums, the only organization in the United States representing the entire museum field in this country.
Jay earned his MA and PhD in art and archaeology at Princeton University and has had 40 years of international museum experience as a research scholar, curator, and museum director, having previously worked at Shanghai Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Seattle Art Museum, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
