Jennifer Y. Chi, a classicist and seasoned curator, has been named deputy director and chief curator of the Brooklyn Museum in New York. She replaces Nancy Spector, who occupied the post for 10 months before returning to the Guggenheim Museum in February 2017.

Chi, who holds a PhD from New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts, spent the past decade as exhibitions director and chief curator for NYU’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World. Fittingly for her new role at an encyclopedic museum, Chi organized exhibitions that bridged the ancient and the Modern. One of her recent shows combined Sumerian sculptures with works by Modern and contemporary artists like Willem de Kooning and Michael Rakowitz.

Chi is the most high-ranking hire that the museum’s director, Anne Pasternak, has made since she brought over Nancy Spector in 2016. In her new role, Chi will oversee the work of 18 curators and help shape the museum’s strategy and curatorial program. She will also have a hand in the on-going renovations of the museum’s collection galleries, which have been underway since Pasternak took the helm in May 2015.

“I am excited to partner with Jennifer,” Pasternak said in a statement. “She is not only a renowned scholar and curator, but also a creative thinker, whose drive and entrepreneurial skills will be a great boon to our efforts in expanding our curatorial activities.”

Chi said: “I am thrilled by the opportunity to work with the Brooklyn Museum’s incredible staff and, under the visionary leadership of Anne Pasternak, to expand the scope of the Museum’s exhibitions program and open up the wonders of its permanent collection.”