A conversation between Neal Benezra, Director, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Alice Mong, Executive Director, Asia Society Hong Kong Center
Registration at 2.45pm
Conversation at 3pm
Close at 4pm

Neal Benezra became the Director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) in 2002. A Bay Area native, he leads one of the first museums to focus on modern and contemporary art in the United States. Under Benezra's leadership, SFMOMA has enjoyed landmark collections growth, including a groundbreaking partnership to bring the renowned Doris and Donald Fisher Collection to SFMOMA.

In conversation with Alice Mong, Benezra will discuss SFMOMA’s world class exhibition program, its distinguished collection of more than 30,000 works, as well as the museum’s $610 million, 235,000-square-foot expansion project, featuring a new building designed by the Oslo/New York–based architecture firm Snøhetta that is scheduled to open in 2016.

Benezra formerly served as deputy director and Frances and Thomas Dittmer Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Art Institute of Chicago, a dual position he assumed in 2000. Previously, he was assistant director for art and public programs (1996–1999) and chief curator (1991–1996) at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. During his nearly two decades in the museum field, Benezra has organized and co-organized numerous important exhibitions such as Edward Ruscha (2000, Hirshhorn Museum); Bruce Nauman (1994, Hirshhorn Museum and Walker Art Center); Martin Puryear (1991, The Art Institute of Chicago); and Robert Arneson (1986, Des Moines Art Center); Pop! From San Francisco Collections (2004); Jeff Wall (2007); and Mark di Suvero at Crissy Field (2013).

Benezra holds both a Ph.D. and an M.A. in the history of art from Stanford University; an M.A. in the history of art from the University of California, Davis; and a B.A. with honors in the history of art and political science from the University of California, Berkeley.