The new director of the Whitworth has said she wants to develop the gallery’s “artistic rigour and social impacts” and widen its global appeal.
Sook-Kyung Lee, who is a senior curator at London’s Tate Modern, will join the Manchester institution in August.
She was also artistic director of the 14th Gwangju Biennale, external, which opened in in her South Korea homeland in April.
She said it would be a “huge honour” to lead one of the UK’s “most innovative and audience-focused art institutions”.
The gallery, which forms part of the University of Manchester, was founded in 1889 as The Whitworth Institute and Park in memory of the industrialist Sir Joseph Whitworth for “the perpetual gratification of the people of Manchester”.
A university representative said it continued that mission “today in new contexts”.
It underwent a £17m redevelopment in 2015, which doubled the public space and created expanded gallery spaces, a study centre, learning studio and collections care centre, while also reconnecting it with its park, with communal gardens and outdoor programmes.