The New York–based Keith Haring Foundation announced Tuesday that it has named Simon Castets as its next executive director. Castets, a French American curator who previously held prominent roles at Luma Arles and the Swiss Institute in New York, will start at the foundation on January 12.
At the Keith Haring Foundation, Castets will be tasked with overseeing the organization’s collection of Haring’s work and archives, as well as its extensive grant-making program. In 2025, the organization disbursed $7.7 million in grants, including $1 million to the Studio Museum in Harlem, for its recently opened new building, and $3 million to Bard College’s Center for Curatorial Studies for its new Keith Haring Wing.
Primarily, however, the foundation is known for providing smaller grants to dozens of charities for at-risk youth and education, research, and care related to HIV/AIDS, including Planned Parenthood, GMHC, and Callen-Lorde.
In an interview with ARTnews, Castets said he sees the foundation’s dual-mission—supporting Haring’s artistic legacy and his activism—as a reflection of the artist’s unique approach to art.
“Keith had such a drive, despite his short career, to make a difference and to stand up for his ideals, and he was unbelievably successful at doing that,” Castets said. Art and activism were “always integrated in his understanding of art,” he added.
Castets will no doubt have his hands full. In March, the Brant Foundation will open a new exhibition on Haring focusing on the artist’s output between 1980 and 1983, considered to be turning point in his career. Then, in June, the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas, will open “Keith Haring in 3D,” the first exhibition to explore Haring’s sculpture practice. The foundation is providing loans, as well as scholarly support, for both exhibitions. Additional shows for Haring are also already planned for 2027 to 2029, with the latter year marking the 40th anniversary of the organization’s founding.
Simon Castets.
For Castets, the thrill of joining the foundation lies in how Haring’s legacy is continuing to evolve. Haring famously believed that “art is for everybody,” and, as Castets explained, the artist loved when he met fans who had made T-shirts or accessories using his art. That lack of preciousness opens doors to other opportunities to spread understanding of Haring’s art and his ideals, from its already robust licensing arm to exploring new ways of presenting his work.
Castets joins the foundation after three years at Luma Arles, a 27-acre arts center in the South of France, where he served as director of strategic initiatives. At Luma, he built partnerships with Google, Sharjah’s cultural authorities, and the Getty Foundation, with whom he worked on an expanded version of its PST exhibition, “Sensing the Future: Experiments in Art and Technology.” Prior to that, he ran the Swiss Institute in New York for over a decade, which saw the organization grow as well as its mounting of highly regarded first institutional exhibitions for several emerging artists.
However, returning to New York in 2026, Castets faces a very different cultural landscape, marked as the last year has been by attacks on LGBTQIA+ individuals and organizations, as well as the Trump administration’s pressure campaign on museums and cultural institutions. Of the moment, Castet said, “It goes to show that the work is never done, and the Haring Foundation, and others like it in the field, continue to do extremely important work in a sometimes very hostile political climate.”
“The foundation has shown an unwavering commitment to its mission, and I think continuing to do the work is now more necessary than ever,” he added.
