A 46-year-old scholar with an international personal and cultural background will be the next leader of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

On Friday, the museum’s board of trustees announced the appointment of Julian Zugazagoitia, director of the Museo del Barrio in New York, as its fifth director.

Born in Mexico City and educated at the Sorbonne, Zugazagoitia has been director of the Museum del Barrio since 2002. Before that he was executive assistant to the director at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, where he organized the big “Brazil Body and Soul exhibition.” In 2002 he was a curator of the 25th Sao Paulo Biennale in Brazil.

Kansas City Star