Min Jung Kim was named director of the New Britain Museum of American Art on Friday. She currently serves as deputy director for external relations of the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum of Michigan State University in East Lansing.

Kim follows Douglas Hyland who held the role for 16 years. He oversaw a major expansion and renovation scheduled to be finished this fall. She will be only the sixth director in the museum's 112-year history.

A native Korean who is now a U.S. citizen, Kim previously was managing director, exhibitions and programming at the Global Cultural Asset Management Group in New York, and for 12 years worked at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in New York. She earned a B.A. in Art History from Wheaton College (MA.) and a master's from Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London.

"That it is the first and therefore the oldest museum dedicated solely to American art, I think that is quite profound. I think it has an extraordinary collection," Kim told the Hartford Courant by phone. She begins as director on Nov. 2.