Ned Rifkin is the former Director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and former Under Secretary for Art at the Smithsonian Institution. He has also led the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the Menil Collection in Houston, and the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin. Earlier in his career he served as Chief Curator at the Hirshhorn and held curatorial posts at the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the New Museum in New York. He holds a doctorate in art history from the University of Michigan.