The Art Career travelled to New Haven, CT, to sit down with Dr. Kymberly Pinder, Dean of The Yale School of Art.

Dr. Kymberly Pinder (she/her) is the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Dean of the Yale School of Art. An alumna of Yale’s History of Art program, Dr. Pinder is an internationally recognized scholar of race, representation, and public art. She is the author of Painting the Gospel: Black Public Art and Religion in Chicago and the editor of Race-ing Art History: Critical Readings in Race and Art History. Dr. Pinder is widely known for her deep commitment to education and its potential to address local and national challenges. In addition to being an eminent scholar and educator, she has extensive experience at institutions of higher education and museums.

Dr. Pinder was appointed Yale’s first black woman dean in 2021. Prior to her appointment at Yale, she served as Provost and Senior Vice President, then later Acting President of Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt). Before her time in Boston, she was the Dean of the University of New Mexico College of Fine Arts for six years, director and curator of the University of New Mexico Art Museum, chair of the Department of Art History, Theory and Criticism, and director of that department’s graduate program at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago (SAIC). Dr. Pinder has also worked in museums and galleries, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Art Institute of Chicago. Dr. Pinder received her M.A., M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Yale University.

Dr. Pinder has approached each of her leadership roles with the view that institutions of higher education must work closely with their home cities to advocate for the importance of arts and culture and to create reciprocal avenues of access. She has curated exhibitions on urgent contemporary issues and held forums for thoughtful student and community member dialogue. Working with local artists, schools and governments, she has helped create murals in Chicago and Albuquerque. Dr. Pinder serves on the boards of Association of Independent Colleges of Art & Design (AICAD), the photography organization CENTER, the Boston Art Commission, Massachusetts State Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and the Boston Public Art Triennial.

https://www.art.yale.edu/