Art in America Editor William S. Smith Departs for Hong Kong's M+ Museum

After seven years as editor-in-chief of Art in America, William S. Smith is departing the magazine to join Hong Kong’s new M+ museum, currently slated to open this fall after a series of postponements. There, Smith will work within the curatorial department and oversee the museum’s digital and editorial content.

Smith, who cofounded Triple Canopy in 2007, joined Art in America in 2013 as an associate editor and in 2017 was promoted to the helm of the magazine, which was founded in 1913. During his editorship, the international monthly published issues themed around Indigenous artists, realism, and immersive art, and Smith himself wrote on a wide variety of subjects, including climate change, the KAWS enterprise, and the New York Museum of Modern Art’s 2019 renovations. His tenure also saw the acquisition of Art Media Holdings—which owns Art in America and Artnews, among other art periodicals—by the Penske Media Corporation in 2018.

“I’m really proud of having revitalized this title, which is more than a century old,” Smith told Artnews. “Bringing in dozens of new writers and a more diverse writer base is the legacy I’m proudest of.”

Also announced today was Mary-Kay Wilmer’s departure as editor-in-chief of the London Review of Books, which she cofounded in 1979 and has led for nearly three decades.