DI­REC­TORS
CON­VER­SA­TION

Given the scale at which they operate, major museums of modern and contemporary art are shaped by complex possibilities and challenges. With their immense cultural capital, museums are able to pursue a vision for art that extends both backward and forward in time, changing perceptions of history in response to new social and technological developments. Yet the immense costs of running a large institution, covering everything from staffing to storage, shipping, and insurance, mean that museums must negotiate with multiple stakeholders, from government to private patrons and corporate sponsors, in developing their programming. On top of this, museums must also meet the needs of diverse audiences, from art professionals to the general public, whose interests are evolving amid the cultural disruption brought about by the 21st-century attention economy.    

How are museums navigating this constantly shifting terrain at a time of increased global economic and geopolitical uncertainty? What new possibilities and challenges are emerging out of this situation? What new narratives are there for museums to tell? Making its debut at Art Week Tokyo this year, the Directors Conversation brings together global museum leaders for a public chat about their approaches to administration, programming, and audience engagement. In exchanging insights on how each museum confronts its locally embedded conditions while staying connected to international discourse, the conversation seeks to generate ideas for shared museum practices that can be adapted to different contexts. 

The conversation will be led by Doryun Chong, Artistic Director and Chief Curator of M+, Hong Kong. Since joining M+ in 2013, Chong has been instrumental in the founding and development of the museum, which officially opened in November 2021 and seeks to represent Asia’s contemporary visual culture in a global context. He has a wealth of experience collaborating with institutions and professionals in Japan, most recently serving as the curatorial director of “Prism of the Real: Making Art in Japan 1989–2010,” now on view at the National Art Center, Tokyo.  

PARTICIPANTS

DORYUN CHONG

MODERATOR

Doryun Chong is Artistic Director and Chief Curator, M+, Hong Kong. Chong oversees all curatorial activities and programs at M+, including collections, exhibitions, learning and public programs, publications, and digital initiatives across the museum’s three main disciplinary areas of design and architecture, moving image, and visual art. He has curated and overseen critically acclaimed exhibitions for M+, including “Noguchi for Danh Vo: Counterpoint” (2018), “Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to Now” (2022, with Mika Yoshitake), and “Picasso for Asia: A Conversation” (2025, with François Dareau). He also helped organize and supervise the five editions of Hong Kong’s participation in the Venice Biennale from 2015 to 2024. Prior to joining M+, Chong worked at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. He curated several landmark exhibitions during that time, including “Tokyo 1955–1970: A New Avant-Garde” (2012) at MoMA and “Tetsumi Kudo: Garden of Metamorphosis” (2008) and “House of Oracles: A Huang Yong Ping Retrospective” (2005) at the Walker.

PROFILE

SUSANNE GAENSHEIMER

SPEAKER

Susanne Gaensheimer is Director of Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf. From 2009 to 2017 she was Director of Museum MMK für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, where she founded the branch MMK 2 in 2014 and concurrently served as Curator of the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2011 and 2013. Previously, she was Director of Westfälischer Kunstverein Münster (1999–2001) and head of the modern and contemporary art collection at Lenbachhaus Munich (2002–08). Her recent projects in Düsseldorf include solo exhibitions of Julie Mehretu (2025), Etel Adnan (2023), Isaac Julien (2023), and Lygia Pape (2022) alongside an ongoing transformation of the collection with a focus on internationality, diversity, and new narratives. In 2023 she launched the K21 Global Art Award, supporting young international contemporary artists. Since 2016, she has also been an honorary professor at Goethe University Frankfurt. Gaensheimer is the editor and author of numerous publications.

PROFILE

MANUEL SEGADE

SPEAKER

Manuel Segade is Director of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid. From 2013 to 2023 he was Director of the Museo Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (CA2M Museum) in the Madrid municipality of Móstoles, where he won the CIMAM Outstanding Museum Practice Award in 2021. From 2007 to 2009 he was Chief Curator of the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela, where he curated monographic exhibitions for artists including Susan Philipsz (2007) and Carme Nogueira (2008) and thematic surveys including “A Little History of Photography” (2009) and “Familiar Feelings: On the Boston Group” (2009). Segade began his practice as an independent curator in 2003 and has organized more than 60 curatorial projects in the two decades since, including the Spanish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2017. He holds a PhD from the University of Leeds and is the author and editor of numerous books.

PROFILE

PHILIP TINARI

SPEAKER

Philip Tinari is Director and Chief Executive of UCCA Center for Contemporary Art. Since joining UCCA in 2011 he has led its growth and transformation from a founder-owned private establishment into China’s premier institution of modern and contemporary art, operating across a constellation of four locations in Beijing, Shanghai, Beidaihe, and Yixing. His program has featured major Chinese and international artists including Cao Fei, William Kentridge, Luc Tuymans, and Xu Bing alongside emerging talents and historical figures such as Marcel Duchamp, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Andy Warhol. Tinari cocurated the landmark exhibition “Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World” (2017) at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and organized the inaugural Diriyah Biennale (2021) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

PROFILE

LOCATION

Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
4-1-1 Miyoshi, Koto-ku

HOURS

November 6, 5pm–6pm

ADMISSION

Free. Registration recommended.