SAN ANTONIO, TX.- The San Antonio Museum of Art announces Emily J. Sano, PhD, has been appointed Coates-Cowden-Brown Senior Advisor for Asian Art. Sano will oversee Asian art: mentoring junior colleagues, overseeing the extensive collections, and devising exhibition plans. She begins at the Museum on January 12, 2016. Last year, Sano was guest curator for the San Antonio Museum of Art’s Ancient to Modern: Japanese Contemporary Ceramics and Their Sources.

Sano is Director Emerita of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. She previously worked at the Dallas Museum of Art as Deputy Director and Chief Curator of Non-Western Art and at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, where she served as the Curator of Asian Art and Deputy Director of Academic Services.

“Emily has already brought her considerable powers of connoisseurship and scholarship to the good of our collections. We are thrilled that she is now formally part of our curatorial team.” said Kelso Director Katherine C. Luber.

“Emily Sano is a legend in the Asian art world. I can’t wait to see how she will build upon and transform our world-class Asian collections. We eagerly await her next exhibition,” added William Keyse Rudolph, Mellon Chief Curator and Marie and Hugh Halff Curator of American Art.

Sano is currently at work on Heaven and Hell: Salvation and Retribution in Pure Land Buddhism, a major exploration of the idea of the afterlife in Buddhist art, particularly in Japan, which will open at the San Antonio Museum of Art in early 2017.

“I am thrilled to join the San Antonio Museum of Art team and support the museum’s efforts to bring Asian art to San Antonio audiences. The scope of the collections covering the Asian continent makes it one of the most important in the Southwest. Building on the excellent Lenora P. and Walter F.Brown Chinese ceramics collection, I hope to promote future exhibitions, programs, and collection growth in new and established areas,” said Sano.