Dorothy Kosinski

Dr. Dorothy Kosinski is the Director Emerita of The Phillips Collection, after serving as the Vradenburg Director and CEO of The Phillips Collection from 2008-2022. At the Phillips, she launched a major six- year partnership with the University of Maryland and established a permanent satellite campus in Southeast DC at the Town Hall Arts Recreation Campus (THEARC). Dr. Kosinski diversified and expanded the museum’s collection and programming, notably acquiring photography and contemporary art, establishing paid internships and fellowships, and hiring the museum’s first Chief Diversity Officer.

In August 2013, Dr. Kosinski was appointed by President Barack Obama to the National Council on the Humanities. In December 2017, she was recognized by the Ambassador of Italy with the Order of the Italian Star, a distinction recognizing her outstanding contributions to the arts and promotion of Italian culture. In 2022 she was named Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. She currently serves on the Board of the Sherman Fairchild Foundation and The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. Other notable Board seats included the Musée Rodin from 2010-2015.

Prior to joining The Phillips Collection, Dr. Kosinski worked at the Dallas Museum of Art, where she served in a number of capacities from 1995 to 2008, last as Senior Curator of Painting and Sculpture. From 1985 to 1997, she lived in Basel, Switzerland and was the curator of the Douglas Cooper Collection of cubist art. She also served as an independent curator of major exhibitions at the Royal Academy of Arts, London; The Kunstmuseum Basel; The Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg; and The National Gallery in Prague. Dr. Kosinski received a BA from Yale University and an MA and PhD from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University.

Dr. Kosinski has written and edited many books and catalogs on a variety of art topics including 19th Century Symbolism, Dada, Surrealism, 20th Century sculpture and contemporary art, and innovative and socially impactful museum practice.

Dr. Kosinski has been awarded a resident fellowship at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles in 2024.