Amy Hau (EMBA ’01) may have begun her role as director of The Noguchi Museum in January 2024, but she has a much longer history with both the legendary artist and the Queens-based institution. “I worked for Isamu Noguchi from 1986 until he passed away in 1988,” Hau explains. “At the time, it was really working for the artist, not the institution.”
Hau stayed on after Noguchi’s death to assist in the massive undertaking of managing his estate and developing the Isamu Noguchi Foundation, gaining priceless experience through projects such as inventorying the artist’s complete body of work. As she took on more responsibility with the museum, Hau decided to pursue a degree through Baruch College’s Executive MBA program.
“Ultimately, I decided an MBA would be most applicable to what I was doing,” she says. “It takes a lot of financial planning to develop any kind of strategy for growth.”
Hau also pursued additional opportunities to grow outside of the museum, including volunteering on the boards of the Asian American Arts Alliance and Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City. Most recently, she worked with WXY Studio, a for-profit architectural design firm that gave her a chance to study other facets of public art.
Hau’s enthusiasm about the next chapter—for her and the museum—is contagious. “It’s totally a full-circle moment, yet the operation has grown quite a bit,” Hau explains. “It’s wonderful to step into something that’s somewhat new and not the same old job.”
A new exhibition of Noguchi’s contemporary and good friend, Toshiko Takaezu, highlights the museum’s mission to elevate individual artists. The exhibition is on view until July 28, 2024, and displays nearly 200 of Takaezu’s works in an entirely new light.
After devoting so many years of her life to preserving and promoting Noguchi’s artwork and legacy, Hau remains unsurprisingly enthusiastic about her former mentor. “He was an artist who straddled both the East and the West. He was half Japanese, half American,” she says. “There’s a timelessness to his work that comes from marrying different design ideas and challenges.”
The Noguchi Museum celebrates its 40th anniversary next year with a reimagined permanent collection of his work, spearheaded by Hau. “The intention when he created the museum was to take you through a very personal journey of his work. To be able to have that on view again will be exciting.”
— MOLLY TURNER