Karen Kienzle

Karen Kienzle is Director of the Palo Alto Art Center and oversees the vision, budget, marketing efforts, and staffing of this vital community organization. Karen brings more than 15 years of exhibition, education, and arts management experience to the Art Center, having worked previously as the Assistant Director for Exhibitions, Education, and Community Outreach at the de Saisset Museum at Santa Clara University, and Assistant Curator at the San Jose Museum of Art. She received her B.A. in the history of art from UC Berkeley and her M.A. in museum studies from San Francisco State University and she is a graduate of the Getty Museum Leadership Institute at Claremont Graduate University. Karen is passionate about supporting the inner artist in everyone and frequently appreciates the work of other artists by visiting museums and galleries in her travels around the country and world.