Mimi Gardner Gates

Who is Mimi Gardner Gates?

Mary "Mimi" Gates is an American art historian who is the recent Director of the Seattle Art Museum. In 1996, she married William H. Gates, Sr., father of Bill Gates.

Gates has a B.A. degree in art history from Stanford University, a certificate with honors in Chinese language and culture from the École Nationale des Langues Orientales Vivantes in Paris, an M.A. degree from the University of Iowa, and a Ph.D. degree in history from Yale University. An old friend of Theresa Heinz Kerry, she is also a frequent juror for the Heinz Awards, appointed by the Heinz Family Philanthropies to award outstanding achievement in the area of Arts and Humanities.

She was curator of Asian art and then director of the Yale University Art Gallery. At Yale, she contributed to the development of the Association of Art Museum Directors guideline discouraging the sale of artwork in a Museum's collection, even to cover operating costs. In a brief, she detailed her view that museum collections are "a public trust". She has also lobbied the U.S. and Chinese negotiators to ensure that implementation of UNESCO rules about non-archaeological cultural exports do not tie the hands of American curators.