Wendy Woon is an artist, educator, facilitator, and mentor with over 35 years of innovative leadership experience in progressively high-profile contemporary art institutions in the United States and Canada. Most recently, she held the Edward John Noble Foundation Deputy Director for Education position at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2006-2020). Woon has been an adjunct instructor in the Visual Art Administration Graduate Programs at New York University for over 10 years, exploring imaginative, experimental, and engaging forms of pedagogy in classes to impart these collaborative methods to future art leaders, who will evolve the ways art museums fulfill their educational missions.
Woon is a highly regarded thinker featured in public conversations in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the Americas, most recently in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. She considers art a vital catalyst that connects people across differences, a rich source for people to learn from and with each other, and a means to foster empathy.
She believes art museums must radically change to remain relevant to future generations, reimagining their roles, priorities, and how they define and deploy their resources. Woon envisions art museums that are research-based, values-driven, and wholistically responsive to the needs of their communities now and in the future.
Selected Publications
- Wendy Woon, "Education for a New National Museum: State of the Art in Museum Education.” Education for A New Museum, edited by Boel Christensen-Scheel, Nasjonalmuseet for Kunst in collaboration with Oslo Met – Storby Universitetet, 2019. (ISBN 978-82-8154-134-4)
- “Why Education?” Advance, SITE Santa Fe, 2019.
- “Learning In the Museum: Proximity and Place.” The Museum Blog Book, edited by Joan H. Baldwin, MuseumsEtc. 2017. ( ISBN 13: 9781910144848)
- Woon, Wendy, co-authored with Armstrong, Jackie; Howes, Deborah, “Reinventing MoMA’s Education Program for the 21st Century.” (co-authored with Jackie Armstrong and Deborah Howes).” Digital Heritage and Culture: Strategy and Implementation, edited by Herminia Din and Steven Wu, World Scientific, 2014. (ISBN 9789814522991)
- “Education by Design.” Advance, SITE Santa Fe, 2014.
- “Learning in Pictures and Conversations in the Spaces In Between.” Pedagogia no Campo Expandido, Fundação Bienal do Mercosul, 2011.
Publications Under Review
- “Radical Thoughts on Cultural Mediation for the Future.” publication with the 1st Seminar on Cultural Mediation of SESC RJ, Rio de Janeiro, November 2022.
- “Administration as imagination: Learning from J. Morgan Puett and Mildred’s Lane.” in collaboration with Amy Whitaker, to be published in Critical Approaches to Arts Administration in the New Millenium. (TBC)
- Art Education as a Radical Act: Untold Histories of Education at MoMA. Co-edited with Sara Torres-Vega, May 2024.
Media Publications
- “On Museums and Civic Responsibility.” MoMA Magazine (online), June 12, 2020.
- “Art as Experience: 80 Years of Innovative Learning with MoMA.” Medium.com, October 4, 2017.
- “MoMA shows museums can be relevant beyond art appreciation.” New York Daily News Online, August 1, 2016.
- “Color her blue: Adult coloring books stifle creativity.” New York Daily News Online, June 17, 2016.
- “Ready for Prime Time program enriches museum experience for seniors.” New York Daily News Online, May 19, 2016.
- “We need visual art education now more than ever.” New York Daily News Online, May 4, 2016.
- “Doing with rather than for…,” Medium.com, November 6, 2015.
- Mining Museum Education Conference and Website, 2010.
- Sample Blogposts
Interviews
- “Forum und Labor.” Interview with Wendy Woon by Benedikt Sarreiter. Volkswagen Group Culture Crossing: Access, pgs. 11-14, No 3., 2019.
- “Shaking It Up. SAIC Alums Work to Create Equity in Museums.” Interview with Wendy Woon by Micco Caporale. School of The Art Institute of Chicago Biannual Magazine. Fall 2019.
- “Museum Education -this socialization, emotions, joy.” Wendy Woon interview by Gel Morozova, APTLNA, online July 19, 2017.