Zoë Ryan is director of the Hammer Museum at the University of California, Los Angeles. Prior to taking up this post in January 2025, she was Daniel W. Dietrich, II director of the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania. Since joining ICA in 2020, she focused on expanding the institution’s role as a launchpad for contemporary art, research, and ideas across disciplines; developing a strong institutional culture; and building community around ICA’s program as a resource within Philadelphia, nationally, and internationally.

Prior to ICA, Zoë was John H. Bryan chair and curator of architecture and design at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she set the vision for collecting and exhibiting modern and contemporary architecture and design as expanded fields of practice that are in dialogue with the socio-political conditions of the time. Her research explores how the arts can be a catalyst for social and cultural change and she is an active lecturer and panelist at national and international institutions.