Christine Poggi to Head the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University

Christine Poggi, a respected scholar of art history, Italian studies, and women’s and gender studies, has been chosen at the next Judy and Michael Steinhardt Director of the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. The Institute for Fine Arts, housed in the Duke Mansion on Fifth Avenue in New York City, was founded in 1932. It is one of the nation’s most respected  graduate schools and research centers in the field of art history. Dr. Poggi will become director on September 1.

Currently, Dr. Poggi is a professor of art history at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She holds a secondary appointment in Italian studies. She has also served as director of the Program in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

In accepting the appointment, Professor Poggi said “I am honored to be selected as the next director of this wonderful institution, and to have the opportunity to work with such a distinguished group of scholars and students in the center of our nation’s art world. The combination of the Institute’s reputation for excellence, its deep and enduring ties to the city’s greatest cultural institutions, its committed community of supporters and patrons, and its connection to a world-class research university all contribute to stimulate tremendous growth and innovation. I look forward to this challenge, and to working closely with everybody in the Institute of Fine Arts community to realize the Institute’s great potential.”

Dr. Poggi is the author of several books including In Defiance of Painting: Cubism, Futurism, and the Invention of Collage (Yale University Press, 1992); and Inventing Futurism: The Art and Politics of Artificial Optimism (Princeton University Press, 2009).

Professor Poggi is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz. She earned a master’s degree from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. from Yale University.