Emil Kang

Former Program Director, The Mellon Foundation

Metro Region: New York

Member Since: 2023

Until recently, Emil directed the Arts and Culture program at The Mellon Foundation, the nation’s largest funder of arts and humanities, where he led a transformative team of 18 professionals managing $125 million in annual grantmaking. Under his leadership, the program underwent a comprehensive strategic shift to center equity and justice, more than doubling its grantmaking portfolio and pioneering innovative funding approaches to support artists more broadly. He currently serves as the Agnes Gund Visiting Professor of the Practice of Arts at Brown University, where he mentors emerging creative leaders through innovative curricula that bridge artistic practice with social impact.

A visionary arts leader, Kang founded Carolina Performing Arts at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2005, building it into one of the nation’s leading university-based performing arts programs. During his fourteen-year tenure, he commissioned over 60 groundbreaking works. In 2016, Chancellor Carol Folt appointed him Special Assistant to the Chancellor for the Arts, where he established Arts Everywhere, a major campus-wide initiative integrating artistic practice into daily university life.

In 2012, President Barack Obama appointed Kang to the National Council on the Arts, making him the first Korean-American to serve in this capacity. His extensive board service includes Silkroad (founded by Yo-Yo Ma), the International Society for the Performing Arts, the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, The University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and the Martha Graham Dance Company.

Prior to his academic career, Kang held significant leadership roles in the orchestral world, including as President and Executive Director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, where he spearheaded the successful completion of the $60 million Max M. Fisher Music Center and established innovative community partnerships that transformed the Orchestra’s relationship with the city of Detroit.

A thought leader in arts integration and cultural policy, Kang frequently presents at international conferences and academic institutions on topics ranging from arts entrepreneurship and creative leadership to diversity in the arts and the intersections of artistic practice with social justice.