Since becoming the Barbara B. Taylor Director of the Saint Louis Art Museum in 2021, Min Jung Kim has enriched the museum’s strong, global collection; redoubled its long-standing commitment to the St. Louis community and expanded international collaborations and partnerships.
Under Kim’s leadership, gifts and strategic acquisitions in virtually every curatorial area have allowed the museum to present more-comprehensive stories about the history of art around the world. One area of extraordinary collection growth has been 20th-century and contemporary works by Native American artists. The museum purchased works by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Fritz Scholder and Kay WalkingStick and announced a gift by William P. Healey of 100 drawings, paintings and sculpture by 62 Indigenous artists.
The museum has offered free general admission for more than 115 years. During Kim’s directorship, it significantly increased the frequency and scale of free public programs, adding new festivals, performances and educational activities for young visitors. For Kim, an important part of SLAM’s public engagement is to be a resource and an advocate for art and culture in St. Louis. During the 2023 exhibition “The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century,” which SLAM co-organized with the Baltimore Museum of Art, the museum emphasized community engagement at the earliest planning stages for the exhibition. This led to a series of collaborations with St. Louis artists and community groups before “The Culture” opened and throughout the exhibition’s run. Kim has directed the museum to deepen its partnerships and collaborations with local art and culture organizations by inviting groups to develop programming relating to SLAM’s collection and exhibitions, and in 2023, the museum received a substantial, three-year grant from the Art Bridges Foundation to support these efforts.
SLAM has a reputation for developing ambitious exhibitions and working with museums, lenders and artists across the country and around the world. Kim, who in 2025 was elected president of the Association of Art Museum Directors, has helped continue these global partnerships. In 2023, the museum organized “Monet/Mitchell: Painting the French Landscape“ in partnership with the Fondation Louis Vuitton and the Musée Marmottan Monet. The following year, SLAM presented “Matisse and the Sea,” an exhibition it organized with support from the FRench American Museum Exchange (FRAME), of which SLAM is a charter member. The Saint Louis Art Museum boasts a world-class collection of modern and contemporary German art, including the world’s largest collection of Max Beckmann paintings. In 1983, SLAM organized “Expressions: New Art from Germany,” a traveling show that introduced American audiences to Neo-Expressionism, including works by Anselm Kiefer. Kim will build on this legacy in 2025, when she curates “Anselm Kiefer: Becoming the Sea,” the first comprehensive American exhibition of the renowned German artist in more than two decades.
Kim previously served as the director and chief executive officer of the New Britain Museum of American Art, the deputy director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, and the director of content alliances at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Kim was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea. She graduated from Wheaton College and holds a master’s degree in art history from the Courtauld Institute of Art at the University of London.
