Sylvia Yount is responsible for the administrative and curatorial oversight of the American Wing and its wideranging historical collections of art and design. Previously, she held curatorial leadership positions at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the High Museum of Art, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. At The Met, she has prioritized broadening the department’s collecting and programming to be more inclusive of underrepresented artists from across the continent—particularly women and people of color—and most recently oversaw a major reinstallation of the American Wing to mark its 2024 centennial. She continues to lecture and publish on late nineteenth- and twentieth-century American art and culture as well as on issues of curatorial responsibility and museum practice.

She received a PhD and a MA in the History of Art from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in Italian from New York University.