Faou Foundation Appoints New Executive Director
New York, NY (September 1, 2020) – Faou Foundation, the non-profit foundation responsible for monumental public art installations to promote environmental awareness and balance between humanity and nature, today announced the appointment of art historian, curator, and museum and foundation professional Yvette Y. Lee as the new Executive Director. Ms. Lee will lead the Foundation’s mission with Founding Artist Mariko Mori and the Board of Directors of creating site-specific installations that inspire an ethos of “one with nature.”
Melissa Chiu, a former board member of Faou Foundation and Director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden said, “Mariko is one of the most important artists to emerge from Japan in the past fifty years. The six site-specific works Mariko has envisioned for Faou are visionary in concept, monumental in scale, and will stand as testimonials of the beauty between art and nature and its surroundings for many generations to come. With over twenty-five years of experience in the non-profit art sector, Executive Director Yvette Y. Lee has extensive professional experience to take on the challenges of Faou’s ambitious mission.”
Ms. Lee says of her appointment, “Particularly in today’s polarizing world, I believe Faou’s mission and Mariko’s vision to connect people around the world through the power of art—art that honors nature, creating more balance in the world and promoting unity in humanity, is extremely compelling, powerful and timely.”
Ms. Lee comes to Faou from Skystone Foundation, the nonprofit organization responsible for supporting and administering James Turrell’s monumental artwork, Roden Crater, where she served most recently as Executive Director. Previously, she worked at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation as Senior Project Manager for the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative, a multi-year project that included activities in acquisitions, exhibitions and education across three regions of the world. Ms. Lee managed activities in New York and with collaborating museums in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Mexico City. Prior to joining the Guggenheim, Ms. Lee worked as Curator of Exhibitions for the American Federation of Arts from 2004 through 2008, conceiving and organizing exhibitions that traveled to museums internationally. At the Whitney Museum of American Art from 1994 to 2002, Ms. Lee had many roles which culminated in Assistant Curator for Special Projects, undertaking exhibitions that included co-curating The Paintings of Joan Mitchell with Jane Livingston.
Ms. Lee will spearhead Faou Foundation in developing new projects in Africa, Europe, Australia and North America and direct educational programming within the host communities of Primal Rhythm on Miyako Island in Japan and Ring: One with Nature (2016) in Cunhambebe State Park in Muriqui, Mangaratiba, Rio de Janeiro State.
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