The MFAH Appoints Bradley Bailey as the Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Curator of Asian Art

Distinguished curator and scholar will lead the MFAH Department of Asian Art

Houston—September 20, 2017—Gary Tinterow, director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, today announced the appointment of Bradley Bailey as the Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao curator of Asian art. Currently associate curator of Asian art at the Ackland Art Museum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Dr. Bailey will be the first to hold the newly sponsored curatorial position at the Museum. The position has been sponsored by Anne and Albert Chao and the Chao family, through the Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Foundation, which has provided significant generous support to the Asian art department and MFAH for many years. The Chao family’s leadership and philanthropy can be seen across the Houston community.

“I am delighted that Bradley Bailey has joined our staff,” said Tinterow in announcing the appointment. “His credentials, imagination, curatorial experience, and scholarly accomplishments will provide an excellent platform from which he can grow our collection and deepen our programming.”

“I am excited to build on the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s collection of Asian art, which is a daring blend of works with great historical importance and thrilling contemporary acquisitions. This combination provides an unparalleled opportunity to showcase traditional art forms alongside works from the present-day, demonstrating their power and relevance to modern audiences. I look forward to tapping into the enthusiasm for and support of the Museum and its patrons for the collection,” said Dr. Bailey, who begins his appointment in Houston in October.

Most recently the first associate curator of Asian art at the Ackland Art Museum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Dr. Bailey has written and lectured widely, with a specialization in the art of Japan, focusing on the Meiji period (1868–1912) and artistic relations between Japan and the West. Dr. Bailey has curated exhibitions on Japanese American and contemporary art at the Mead Art Museum, the Yale University Art Gallery, and Recession Art in New York. He organized two special exhibitions of Japanese art, Extended Remix: Contemporary Artists Meet the Japanese Print (2016), and Flash of Light, Fog of War: Prints of the Japanese Military 1894–1905 (2017), at the Ackland Art Museum. Dr. Bailey also led the groundbreaking reorganization and reinstallation of the Ackland Art Museum’s galleries of Asian art, which include Indian painting and sculpture, Chinese ceramics, Korean pottery, and Japanese metalwork, highlighted by the exhibition Color Across Asia (2016).

Dr. Bailey earned his bachelor, master, Ph.M., and Ph.D. in art history, as well as his M.B.A., with emphasis on nonprofit management and museums, from Yale University. His publications include essays in the exhibition catalogue for Flash of Light, Fog of War: Prints of the Japanese Military 1894–1905, along with essays on the work of Hokusai and on prints from the Sino-Japanese War of 1895.

About Arts of Asia
The MFAH collection of Asian art spans nearly five millennia and encompasses the cultures of China, the Himalayas, India, Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia. The novel installation of ancient, modern, and contemporary objects in the same gallery has engaged visitors in a dialogue that conveys transnational and global narratives within the ancient and modern worlds. The display of fragile textiles, lacquers, and works on paper changes approximately every three months, allowing the Asian art department to create focused installations and to showcase more works from the collection. Visit mfah.org/asianart for more information.

About the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Founded in 1900, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is among the 10 largest art museums in the United States. Located in the heart of Houston’s Museum District, the MFAH comprises two gallery buildings, a sculpture garden, theater, two art schools, and two libraries, with two house museums, for American and European decorative arts, nearby. The encyclopedic collection of the MFAH numbers more than 65,000 works and spans the art of antiquity to the present.

Media Contact
Sarah Hobson, publicist
713.800.5345 / shobson@mfah.org