The Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena Appoints Mikka Gee Conway as General Counsel

On Tuesday, The Norton Simon Museum announced the appointment of Mikka Gee Conway as General Counsel, overseeing the diverse range of legal matters for the Museum and its affiliated foundations.

Conway comes to the organization with more than three decades of professional experience at arts institutions across the United States, including the National Gallery of Art and the Getty. She will join Norton Simon Museum’s executive team on June 30.

“We are delighted to welcome Mikka Gee Conway to the Norton Simon,” said Walter W. Timoshuk, President and Chief Executive Officer. “With her impressive legal expertise and leadership experience in the arts, Mikka will be a strong partner as we advance our organization’s objectives.”

Added Conway, “The Norton Simon Museum is an iconic Southern California institution with a spectacular collection and talented staff. I am honored and delighted to be joining them as General Counsel, and to have a role in helping navigate the next chapter in the Museum’s history.”

Throughout Conway’s career in the arts, she has brought her deep knowledge and expertise in museum governance and copyright and intellectual property law.?In her most recent roles, she served as Senior Counsel at ArtConverge, a firm providing legal services and thought leadership in the arts, and as an independent consultant advising museums and museum professional organizations on matters including exhibition strategy, academic programs, accreditation requirements and leadership training.

From 2020 to 2024, she held the position of the inaugural Chief Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Officer and Equal Employment Opportunity Director at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Additional experience includes curatorial, administrative, legal and senior leadership roles, including assistant director at the J. Paul Getty Museum, assistant director for collections and exhibitions at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and associate general counsel at the J. Paul Getty Trust.

Conway has frequently been on the faculty of the annual Legal Issues in Museum Administration conference and served on its planning committee from 2018 to 2021. She taught intellectual property law to Master of Library and Information Science students at the UCLA Graduate School of Education, was one of the first members of the Advisory Board of the Open Copyright Education Advisory Network (OCEAN) and is a frequent speaker on topics relating to museums, law and inclusion. She serves on the National Advisory Board of the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas.

Conway holds degrees in art history from Stanford University and Williams College and a J.D. summa cum laude from the University of Minnesota Law School.

The Norton Simon Museum is known around the world as one of the most remarkable private art collections ever assembled. Over a 30-year period, industrialist Norton Simon (1907–1993) amassed an astonishing collection of European art from the Renaissance to the 20th century, and a stellar collection of South and Southeast Asian art spanning 2,000 years.

Modern and Contemporary Art from Europe and the United States, acquired by the former Pasadena Art Museum, also occupies an important place in the Museum’s collections. The Museum houses more than 12,500 objects, roughly 800 of which are on view in the galleries and gardens.