Dr. Jay Xu
Dr. Jay Xu has served as director and Chief Executive Officer of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco since 2008. Dr. Xu earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in art and archaeology at Princeton University, and has had forty years of international museum experience as a research scholar, curator, and museum director. He previously served as assistant and translator for the museum director at the Shanghai Museum (1983-1990); research fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1995-1996); curator of Chinese art at the Seattle Art Museum (1996-2003); Head of the Asian Art Department and Chairman of the Department of Asian and Ancient Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (2003-2008).
In 2015, Dr. Xu became the first Asian American museum director elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2022, Dr. Xu was appointed by the U.S. Congress to serve as one of the eight commissioners on the Congressional Commission to Study the Potential Creation of a National Museum of Asian Pacific American History and Culture.
Dr. Xu is a member of the Association of Art Museum Directors (North America), the Board of the Terra Foundation for American Art, the Advisory Council of the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University, and the Advisory Board of the Tang Center for Silk Road Studies at the University of California-Berkeley.
Dr. Xu also serves in a variety of civic responsibilities and is a member of the Commission on the Arts at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
America’s Field Trip
Engaging students nationwide to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary!
A new contest inviting students in grades 3–12 to share their perspectives on what America means to them — and earn the opportunity to participate in field trip experiences at some of the nation’s most iconic historic and cultural landmarks.