PHILADELPHIA -- Amy Sadao has been appointed the Daniel Dietrich II Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, effective Sept. 1. 

The announcement was made by Penn President Amy Gutmann and Provost Vincent Price.

Sadao is currently executive director of Visual AIDS in New York City.  In this position, which she has held for 10 years, she has built Visual AIDS into one of the most vital and prominent arts organizations of its kind. 

Her accomplishments include staging hundreds of on-site, traveling and online exhibitions of contemporary artists and curators, as well as associated catalogues, symposia, performances and advocacy materials. Also, she expanded the organization’s attendance, revenues, budget, donor base and strategic plan and built a board of directors and a team of more than a hundred interns and volunteers.  She has served widely as a consultant and juror for other arts organizations and as a public speaker and media expert. 

“Amy Sadao promises to be a leader of unparalleled energy and vision for the next phase of ICA’s growth,” Gutmann said.  “She has an especially strong commitment to forging collaborations across a wide range of diverse communities and placing art at the center of dialogue about the most significant intellectual, political, and social issues of the contemporary world.”

“Amy Sadao has transformed every aspect of Visual AIDS over the past decade, expanding its leadership in contemporary art and social advocacy while building the infrastructure and resources to sustain it for the future,” Price said.  “I have been particularly impressed by her understanding of the role of art in a research university – and in catalyzing intellectual and interdisciplinary inquiry in general – as well as by the knowledge she brings of Penn and Philadelphia.”

Sadao earned an M.A. in comparative ethnic studies in 2000 from the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.F.A. in 1995 from The Cooper Union School of Art.