Following an international search, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) has appointed Dr. Wai Yee Chiong as the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Curator of East Asian Art. Dr. Chiong began her new role at VMFA on October 10, 2025.
“We are delighted to have someone with Wai Yee’s deep knowledge, thoughtful vision and extensive experience joining the curatorial team at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts,” said Director and CEO Alex Nyerges. “As an accomplished curator with an international reputation in the field, she will advance the curatorial vision for the museum’s renowned collection of East Asian art.”
The curator oversees a collection that includes more than 2,500 works from China, Japan, and Korea, such as bronzes, ceramics, decorative arts, glass, jades, porcelain and paintings. The position was previously held by Li Jian until her retirement in August 2024 after 17 years of service.
“I am excited to join VMFA and work with its esteemed collection of East Asian art,” Dr. Chiong said. “I look forward to the challenge of developing and interpreting the museum’s holdings of Chinese, Japanese and Korean art, and to organizing engaging exhibitions that welcome new audiences and foster different ways of looking at art.”
Before joining VMFA, Dr. Chiong served as Curator of Asian Art at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Museum in Providence for seven years. At RISD Museum she managed a collection of about 4,300 objects and curated exhibitions that highlighted cross-cultural themes while also increasing accessibility through digitization efforts.
Among her notable projects were “Being and Believing in the Natural World,” which examined human relationships with nature across cultures including Asia and Indigenous North America; “Take Care!,” RISD’s first staff-curated exhibition on climate change; rotations in Japanese print collections; reinstallation projects for contemporary galleries; and collaborations with artists like Chitra Ganesh and Enrique Chagoya.
Dr. Chiong has contributed essays to publications on museum collections history—her recent essay discusses how leaders shaped RISD’s Japanese art holdings—and has participated as a lecturer or panelist at events hosted by institutions such as Princeton University, Brown University, Zhejiang University Museum of Art and Archaeology in China, among others.
Her previous roles include serving as Cunningham Curatorial Fellow in Japanese Art at Harvard Art Museums and teaching at Princeton University’s Department of Art and Archaeology.
Dr. Chiong earned her Ph.D. from Princeton University specializing in Japanese art history after conducting dissertation research as a Japan Foundation Fellow at Gakushūin University in Tokyo. She holds an M.A. from SOAS University of London (History of Art & Archaeology) and graduated summa cum laude from Middlebury College with a B.A. in Economics and Spanish.
Like her predecessor Li Jian, Dr. Chiong is fluent in several languages including Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese Chinese, Japanese, Malay, Spanish and English.
“I am elated to welcome Dr. Wai Yee Chiong as the new E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Curator of East Asian Art,” said Artistic Director and Chief Curator Dr. Michael Taylor. “Wai Yee’s curatorial vision, groundbreaking scholarship, and passion for sharing art and culture make her an outstanding addition to our curatorial team. I can’t wait to see the acquisitions, exhibitions and permanent collection displays she makes at VMFA.”
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is one of the largest comprehensive art museums in the United States with over 50,000 artworks spanning more than 6,000 years—including major collections such as Fabergé pieces outside Russia; American art; South Asian; Himalayan; African; French Impressionist works; English silver; British sporting art; modern/contemporary pieces; among others—and plans for a significant expansion by 2028 that will make it one of America’s four largest comprehensive museums.
Recently recognized by The Washington Post as one of America’s top dozen art museums (https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/interactive/2023/best-art-museums-us/), VMFA remains open every day throughout the year offering free general admission.
