Who

Katelijne de Backer is director of the Armory Show, one of the most important events on the city's art calendar.

Backstory

Antwerp native de Backer got her start in the music business: In the late 1980s she produced and directed two long-running shows on MTV Europe which showcased alternative music like Nirvana and the Red Hot Chili Peppers to European audiences. A decade later, when the Armory Show's sponsors went looking for an associate director who could ultimately take over the helm, she got the nod thanks to her production experience. In 2000, de Backer was named director of the fair.

Of note

De Backer is responsible for ensuring that the circus of artists and galleries, which has grown considerably over the years, stays organized. When she first came aboard, 75 galleries participated and about 8,000 people showed up. These days more than 500 galleries compete for each of the 150 available slots, and attendance tops 50,000. Overseeing the Armory show is rarely dull. One year, de Backer had to secure permits for checkers-playing chimpanzees; another year the city authorities nearly shut the fair down because the number of attendees exceeded the weight limit on the piers where it was held. (She did realize in time that adding a 100,000-pound marble sculpture to the mix wouldn't be wise.) She's also helped make the Armory show a citywide event, prodding local collectors to give tours of their collections and launching a benefit gala for MoMA.

For the record

The Armory Show was started by four gallerists—Matthew Marks, Paul Morris, Pat Hearn, and Colin de Land—and was originally called the Gramercy International Contemporary Art Fair. It adopted its new name in 1999 when it moved to the Armory on Park Avenue.

Personal

She's married to Hans-Willem Snoeck, a fellow Belgian and a hematologist who conducts research at the Carl Icahn Institute for Gene Therapy at Mount Sinai. They have one son, Szymon, and live in Brooklyn Heights.