Kymberly Pinder

Dr. Kymberly Pinder has been appointed to a second five-year term as the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Dean of the Yale School of Art. She began the role in 2021 and will continue to serve in this capacity through 2031 under her renewed appointment. Pinder is the first Black woman to serve as a dean at Yale.

“I appreciate the support I have received to affect so many productive and meaningful initiatives upon my return to Yale,” said Pinder. “It has been an honor to serve with such outstanding staff and faculty who bring such care and generosity to nourishing experimentation, creativity, growth, and wonder among our artists.”

Since Pinder assumed her deanship five years ago, the Yale School of Art has expanded its faculty and staff capacity, opened a dedicated space for Yale College art majors, reopened a gallery space, and raised some $13 million in funding for student scholarships, learning opportunities, and residencies for artists. Additionally, the school’s graduate curriculum has expanded to include instruction in financial literacy and grant writing to ensure students are prepared for professional lives as artists. Pinder has developed several partnerships to enhance arts education in the local community, as well as facilitated collaborations with other schools at Yale. In working with local artists, schools and governments, she has helped create murals in Chicago, Albuquerque and New Haven.

A full professor of art, Pinder is an internationally recognized scholar of race, representation, and public art. She is the author of Painting the Gospel: Black Public Art and Religion in Chicago (University of Illinois Press, 2016) and “Race-ing Art History:

Critical Readings in Race and Art History” (Routledge, 2002). Prior to her appointment at Yale, Pinder served as provost and senior vice president, then as acting president of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Earlier, she served in several leadership roles at the University of New Mexico, including director and curator of the University of New Mexico Art Museum, chair of the Department of Art History and dean of the College of Fine Arts.

A graduate of Middlebury College in Vermont, Pinder earned two master’s degrees and a Ph.D. in art history.