Noguchi Museum Selects Female Director With Deep Roots in Queens
The Noguchi Museum in New York announced Friday that Amy Hau would be its next director. Hau, 59, currently the managing partner of the architecture and urban design firm WXY, is returning to the institution where she began her career, in 1986, as the assistant to the Japanese American sculptor Isamu Noguchi, who synthesized Eastern and Western influences and modernism with a respect for nature. She helped steward the museum, in Long Island City, Queens, for almost three decades after Noguchi’s death in 1988.
“It’s rare to hire someone who has such extensive knowledge of an institution and its history,” said Spencer Bailey, the board’s co-chair, who served on the search committee. He said the board chose to recognize someone who had come up through the ranks of the institution, with deep connections in the community, over others with more traditional art world résumés. Hau will begin her new role on Jan. 8.
Noguchi conceived, installed and opened the museum of his work in 1985 in a repurposed factory and an adjoining concrete building he designed that enclose a serene sculpture garden. Hau rose to the position of director of administration and external affairs, overseeing $23 million in capital projects to stabilize the buildings and garden over more than 10 years.
A longtime resident of Queens where her family moved from Hong Kong when she was 9, Hau has also served as vice chair of the Queens Community Board 1 since 2014 and is on the board of the Asian American Arts Alliance.
