Jill Medvedow is the Ellen Matilda Poss Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston and a national leader championing the civic role of art museums.

Jill dramatically altered the landscape for contemporary art in Boston when, in 2006, she opened the city’s first new art museum in a century—the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. During her 26 year tenure, Jill began the museum’s permanent collection; developed a national model for teen arts education; and opened the ICA Watershed, transforming a condemned former copper pipe factory into a free and open space for immersive works of art. Under her leadership, the ICA has produced influential exhibitions such as Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College 1933–1957 and Fiber: Sculpture 1960–present, and commissioned works by artists such as John Akomfrah and Firelei Báez, generating new scholarship and directions in the arts as well as supporting women artists and artists underrepresented in the art-historical canon. Most recently, Jill was the co-commissioner of the U.S. Pavilion at the Biennale Arte 2022, presenting the work of Simone Leigh.

Jill began her career championing artists’ books and working in artist-run spaces in New York and Seattle before founding Vita Brevis in Boston, producing groundbreaking temporary projects in public art.