Melissa Chiu

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Melissa Chiu
Born1972 (age 51–52)
Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
EducationUniversity of Western Sydney
University of New South Wales
Occupation(s)Museum director, curator, author
Known forDirector of Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
SpouseBenjamin Genocchio

Melissa Chiu (born 1972) is an Australian museum director, curator and author, and the director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC.

She is a board member of the Association of Art Museum Directors,[1] the American Alliance of Museums, and the Museum Association of New York.[2] She is also on the founding advisory committee for the USC American Academy in China and has participated in the advisory committees for the Gwangju and Shanghai Biennales.[2]

Education[edit]

Chiu was born in Darwin, Northern Territory,[3] Australia, in 1972 to parents who were medical professionals.[4][5] Chiu was educated in Sydney, where she completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History at the University of Western Sydney and then an MA (Arts Administration) at the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales. She later completed a PhD at the University of Western Sydney focusing on Chinese contemporary art in the diaspora.[6]

Career[edit]

Chiu worked as an independent curator for several years at the beginning of her career.[7] From 1993 until 1996, she worked at the University of Western Sydney Collection as a curator.[8] In 1996, Chiu collaborated with a group of Asian Australian artists, performers, filmmakers and writers to establish Gallery 4A, a nonprofit contemporary art center devoted to promoting dialogue in the Asia-Pacific region. Chiu was founding Director of Gallery 4A,[9] later renamed the 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art.[10][11] In 2001 she was the curator during the center's transition to a two-story city owned heritage building in Sydney's Chinatown.[12]

In 2001, Chiu moved to New York to serve as the Asia Society's curator of contemporary Asian and Asian American art[13]—the first curatorial post of its kind in an American museum. [citation needed] In 2004, she was appointed Asia Society's museum director.[13] She initiated a number of initiatives at the Asia Society Museum, including the launch of a contemporary art collection to complement the museum's Rockefeller Collection of traditional Asian art.[1] As museum director of the Asia Society, and its vice president of Global Art Programs,[1] she was responsible for programming its Park Avenue museum and future museum facilities under construction in Hong Kong[14] and Houston.

Chiu has curated over thirty international exhibitions mainly focused on the art and artists of Asia.[6] Her major curatorial credits include Zhang Huan: Altered States (2006)[15] and Art and China's Revolution (2008)[15] with Zheng Shengtian, one of the first historical appraisals of Chinese art from the 1950s through 1970s and Nobody's Fool: Yoshitomo Nara (2010) with Miwako Tezuka.[16] She was awarded a Getty Curatorial Research Fellowship in 2004.[17]

Hirshhorn Museum[edit]

Following her 2014 appointment as the first non-American to head the Hirshhorn, Chiu announced the hiring of New York-based Gianni Jetzer as curator-at-large.[18][19] Jetzer was allowed to maintain his position as a curator for Art Basel, despite the appearance of a conflict of interest.[20] Shortly after taking the position, Chiu learned that the Hirshhorn did not have a spring show planned and assumed curatorial responsibility of an exhibition of works by Shirin Neshat.[21]

In August 2015, Chiu announced that the museum's 40th anniversary celebration would be held at 4 World Trade Center in New York.[19] Philip Kennicott, art and architecture critic of The Washington Post, commented that the decision was "deeply troubling and raises concern about where Chiu is taking the organization".[22] The controversy of her decision to move the location of the 40th anniversary to New York from D.C. led to a concern of "missing out on the chance to cultivate critical donors"[23] in Washington.

Despite the controversy, in Chiu's first year of leadership she doubled the museum's board size and added its first international members. The largest gifts in the museum's history were secured through two multimillion-dollar donations. By 2018, fundraising grew by 75 percent and attendance increased by 28 percent.[24]

In 2023, Chiu was the lead judge on The Exhibit: Finding the Next Great Artist, a reality TV series that aired on MTV and the Smithsonian Channel and featured seven artists competing for their art to be displayed at the Hirshhorn and a cash prize.[25] Chiu was instrumental in the creation of the series and screened the contestants. Alongside host Dometi Pongo, in each episode Chiu visits with the artists in the studio as they are preparing their works and provides a critique before consulting with the other panelists to determine the winner.[25]

Publications[edit]

Chiu has published in art magazines and journals, and has authored several books, including Breakout: Chinese Art Outside China (2007), published by Charta and Chinese Contemporary Art: 7 Things You Should Know (2008), published by AW Asia.[5][15] Her latest books include Contemporary Asian Art with Benjamin Genocchio, published by Thames & Hudson and Monacelli Press,[26] and an edited anthology, Contemporary Art in Asia: A Critical Reader, published by MIT Press.[27]

Media work[edit]

In 2010, Chiu joined the Sunday Arts television show on PBS WNET to conduct a series of interviews with cultural leaders. Interview subjects have included William Kentridge, Shirin Neshat, Yoko Ono, Tan Dun, Chuck Close and Antony Gormley.[28][29]

In addition to her museum work, Chiu is a regular speaker at international conferences and symposia and has delivered lectures at such institutions as Harvard University, Columbia University, Yale University and the Chinese Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, among others.[1][failed verification] She was the speaker at the National Gallery of Australia's inaugural Betty Churcher Memorial Lecture in 2022.[30]

Personal life[edit]

Chiu has a twin a daughter.[24][4] She is an avid ice skater.[4] She is married to Benjamin Genocchio, an Australian art critic and former editor-in-chief of Artnet News.[31] Chiu and Genocchio co-authored Asian Art Now, originally published in 2010.[32] In September 2015, The Washington Post reported that Genocchio had edited the content of Chiu's Wikipedia entry in order to remove negative commentary about her work at the Hirshhorn and to add laudatory statements.[33]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d "Officers". Asia Society. 2009-03-24. Retrieved 2012-09-19.
  2. ^ a b "Stories of Unlimited – University of Western Sydney (UWS)". westernsydney.edu.au.
  3. ^ "Who are you? | Melissa Chiu | Big Think". 184.106.231.42. Archived from the original on 2012-07-11. Retrieved 2012-09-19.
  4. ^ a b c "Meet the museum director behind the Hirshhorn's Kusama show". Washington Post. April 27, 2017. Retrieved April 27, 2022.
  5. ^ a b "Profile: Melissa Chiu". Artinfo. 2008-12-01. Retrieved 2012-09-19.
  6. ^ a b "Melissa Chiu | Museum Director, Asia Society". Big Think. Retrieved 2012-09-19.
  7. ^ "Alumni High Achievers – Melissa Chiu". Western Sydney University. Retrieved 2015-11-07.
  8. ^ "Art Insight #6: Profile of Melissa Chiu". brand.hyundai.com. Retrieved 2015-11-07.
  9. ^ "Chronicler of the Asian-Australian experience". www.smh.com.au. 2009-09-30. Retrieved 2012-09-19.
  10. ^ "ARTAND, Melissa Chiu to lead Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden". www.artandaustralia.com. Retrieved 2015-11-07.
  11. ^ "Location One, Melissa Chiu talks with Richard Bell". www.location1.org. Retrieved 2015-11-07.
  12. ^ "Gallery reincarnated with more space and just the right chi". The Sydney Morning Herald. 2000-10-27. Retrieved 2012-09-19.
  13. ^ a b Cohen, Patricia; Vogel, Carol (5 June 2014). "Asia Society Museum Director to Lead Hirshhorn". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
  14. ^ "About Asia Society | Hong Kong". Asia Society. Retrieved 2012-09-19.
  15. ^ a b c "A Conversation with Melissa Chiu | ArtZineChina.com | 中国艺志". ArtZineChina.com. 1989-06-04. Archived from the original on 2011-07-12. Retrieved 2012-09-19.
  16. ^ Upcoming Events Past Events. "Yoshitomo Nara: Nobody's Fool | New York". Asia Society. Retrieved 2012-09-19.
  17. ^ "Artlog". Artlog. Archived from the original on 2012-03-14. Retrieved 2012-09-19.
  18. ^ "Gianni Jetzer to Be Hirshhorn Museum's Curator at Large". Artnet. 2014-10-30. Retrieved 2015-08-11.
  19. ^ a b "The Washington Hostess Who Nurtured Warhol". The New York Times. 2014-08-07. Retrieved 2015-08-11.
  20. ^ "Strike Two for Melissa Chiu?". Washington City Paper. 2014-08-10. Retrieved 2015-08-11.
  21. ^ Blair, Courtney Willis (Jan 14, 2016). "Melissa Chiu on Her Plans to Make the Hirshhorn Great". Forbes. Retrieved 9 March 2017.
  22. ^ "New director of Hirshhorn snubs D.C. to hold 40th-anniversary gala in New York". The Washington Post. 2014-08-07. Retrieved 2015-08-11.
  23. ^ Capps, Kriston (18 September 2015). ""If we hadn't been part of the Smithsonian, we would've gone the way of the Corcoran.": Melissa Chiu takes over the Hirshhorn?". Washington City Paper. Retrieved 9 March 2017.
  24. ^ a b Gilgore, Sarah (Feb 15, 2018). "Melissa Chiu has a not-so-secret garden on the National Mall". Washington Business Journal. Washington DC. Retrieved March 3, 2023.
  25. ^ a b Roger, Catlin (March 3, 2023). "Behind the Scenes of the New Reality Series, 'The Exhibit'". The Smithsonian. Washington DC. Retrieved March 3, 2023.
  26. ^ Chiu, Melissa; Genocchio, Benjamin (2010). Contemporary Asian Art (PDF). UK: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-238745. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-09-28.
  27. ^ "Contemporary Art in Asia". MIT Press. 2011-04-29. Archived from the original on 2012-03-14. Retrieved 2012-09-19.
  28. ^ "Asia Society's Melissa Chiu Joins SundayArts Team to Conduct In-Depth Interviews with Artists". Asia Society. Retrieved 2012-09-19.
  29. ^ "Melissa Chiu | Sunday Arts". Thirteen. Retrieved 2012-09-19.
  30. ^ Amy Martin (21 April 2022). "National Gallery of Australia to remember former director Betty Churcher with inaugural memorial oration". The Canberra Times. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  31. ^ "Melissa Chiu Named Head of Hirshhorn Museum". Artnet. 2014-06-15. Retrieved 2015-08-11.
  32. ^ "Hiroshi Sugimoto in Conversation with Melissa Chiu". asiasociety.org/. Retrieved 2015-08-11.
  33. ^ Heil, E. "Reliable Source: Hirshhorn museum director’s husband scrubs her Wikipedia entry of controversy", The Washington Post, September 18, 2015.

External links[edit]

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