Jacqueline Chao is an art historian and curator of Asian art with professional experience in museums, universities, research institutions and non-profit arts organizations. A specialist in East Asian and Buddhist art, she is a widely-published author and frequent lecturer on Asian art. Her exhibitions have presented works ranging from the historical to the contemporary in all medias from across the globe. She currently serves as The Cecil and Ida Green Curator of Asian Art at the Dallas Museum of Art, where she oversees the care and presentation of the museum’s significant holdings of Asian art, guides the acquisition of new works into the collection, organizes special exhibitions highlighting Asian art, and contributes new scholarly research and writing.

Prior to joining the Dallas Museum of Art in Fall 2022, she served as Senior Curator of Asian Art since 2018, and Curator of Asian Art since 2016 at the Crow Museum of Asian Art. She oversaw the study, care, display, interpretation, research and publication of the Crow Museum’s Asian art collections, curated and developed original exhibitions and programs, cultivated relationships with national and international partners and donors, and served as a member of the museum’s leadership team. During her tenure at the Crow Museum, she curated and organized twenty-four original exhibitions, as well as served as host curator for several additional exhibition projects. She was the curator for all of the Crow Museum’s gallery reinstallations (five new exhibitions), including the museum’s twentieth anniversary exhibition, following the institution’s multi-million dollar renovation and expansion (re-opened in Fall 2018). She has recently completed a new Handbook to the Crow Museum’s collections, which features updated research on 110 objects in the Crow Museum’s Asian art collection (forthcoming in 2024). In addition to her appointment at the Crow Museum, she was an affiliate faculty member of the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History and lecturer for the Hobson Wildenthal Honors College of the University of Texas at Dallas, where she taught courses in Asian art history. She also served on the Faculty Advisory Council for the Center for Asian Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas.

She joined the Crow Museum from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she taught courses in Asian art history, and from the Art Institute of Chicago, where she contributed research to the Chinese painting collection. As Director of Exhibitions and Residencies at Chicago Artists Coalition, a prominent 40-year-old arts service organization, she managed all of the exhibition and residency programming, including a year-long artist studio residency (consisting of 11 artists) and curatorial and artist incubator (consisting of 24 artists and 4 curators).

She holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in the History and Theory of Art from Arizona State University with a dissertation on renowned Chinese artist Chen Rong (act. 13th century) and the Chinese dragon ink painting tradition, and an Honors B.A. in Art History from the University of Toronto.

In 2019 she was recognized for her curatorial work in Patron Magazine’s “Best Of: Curators” issue for bringing advanced perspectives to the Crow Museum’s collections and for broadening perceptions of Asian art. She is also the recipient of a 2021 Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC) Curatorial Award for Excellence.