Alexandra Munroe

Under Munroe's direction, the Guggenheim launched The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative in 2013 with a $10 million grant to study, present, and acquire contemporary art from China.

In 2012, the American Alliance of Museums conferred an Honorable Mention in the Publications Competition on Lee Ufan: Marking Infinity. Likewise, in 2009, the Association of American Museum Curators awarded The Third Mind: American Artists Contemporary Asia, 1860–1989 an Honorable Mention for Outstanding Exhibition Catalogue.

In April 2011, Munroe organized the Guggenheim's petition among museums worldwide in support of Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei and his release from state custody. Supported by the International Council of Museums (ICOM), the American Association of Museum Directors (AAMD), and the PEN American Center, the petition garnered over 145,000 signatures in the United States and abroad at change.org.

In 2009, the catalogue for Cai Guo-Qiang: I Want to Believe took First Place for 30th George Wittenborn Memorial Book Award, presented by the Art Libraries Society of North America, and in 2008–09, China Art Powers named the exhibition the Best Show in China. In 1996, the catalogue Japanese Art after 1945: Scream Against the Sky was a finalist for the Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award for Outstanding Scholarship in a Publication, awarded by the College Art Association.

In 2006, Munroe was appointed the Senior Curator of Asian Art at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. It was the first curatorial post of its kind in an international art museum devoted to modern and contemporary art. Munroe is also Interim Director, Curatorial Affairs for the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Project.

Munroe is a trustee of The Rosenkranz Foundation, dedicated to innovation in public policy, higher education, and the arts. In 2006, she and her husband Robert Rosenkranz cofounded Intelligence Squared U.S., a public-policy debate forum. Her philanthropy also includes the AKM Fund at New York Community Trust, which sponsors end-of-life and palliative care training at Yale University School of Medicine and Harvard University’s Massachusetts General Hospital.

Munroe's exhibitions and publications have been recognized by numerous awards. The International Association of Art Critics (AICA-USA) has cited four of her exhibitions: YES YOKO ONO (First Prize, Best Museum Show Originating in New York, 2001), Little Boy: The Arts of Japan’s Exploding Subculture, shared with Takashi Murakami (First Prize, Best Thematic Museum Show in New York, 2006), Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860–1989 (First Prize, Best Thematic Museum Show in New York, 2010), and Gutai: Splendid Playground (shared with Ming Tiampo, First Prize, Best Thematic Museum Show in New York, 2014).

In addition, Munroe has been a member of Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) since 2001 and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations

Prior to the Guggenheim, Munroe was an independent curator based in New York and Tokyo before, in 1998, becoming Director of Japan Society Gallery, and later, Vice President of Arts and Culture at Japan Society, an American organization dedicated to cultural and policy exchange between Japan and the United States. During her seven-year tenure, the society's contemporary art programs grew in size and stature through such exhibitions as YES Yoko Ono (2000) and the Takashi Murakami–curated Little Boy: The Arts of Japan’s Exploding Subcultures (2005). Both shows set record attendance for the institution. Munroe also curated the society's first inter-Asia loan exhibition, Transmitting the Forms of Divinity: Early Buddhist Art from Korea and Japan (2003) that was co-organized by the Japan Society; Korea Society, New York; Gyeongju National Museum, Korea; and Nara National Museum, Japan.

Munroe organized the first retrospectives in America of several Asian-born artists, including Yayoi Kusama, Yoko Ono, Cai Guo-Qiang, and Lee Ufan. Munroe's survey exhibition Japanese Art After 1945: Scream Against the Sky (1994–95) initiated the academic and curatorial field of postwar Japanese art history in the United States.

Munroe's survey exhibition Japanese Art After 1945: Scream Against the Sky (1994–95) initiated the academic and curatorial field of postwar Japanese art history in the United States. Munroe organized the first retrospectives in America of several Asian-born artists, including Yayoi Kusama: A Retrospective (Center for International Contemporary Arts, New York, 1989); YES Yoko Ono (Japan Society Gallery, New York, 2000; traveled to 13 venues in U.S., Canada, Japan, and Korea through 2003); Cai Guo Qiang: I Want to Believe (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 2008); and Lee Ufan: Marking Infinity (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 2011).The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860–1989 (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 2009) was among the largest exhibitions of Asian influence on American culture to date and received the inaugural Chairman's Special Award of $1,000,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 2017, Munroe was the lead curator of the Guggenheim's exhibition, Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World, which The New York Times named among the Top 10 art exhibitions of 2017.