Neng Chiang Yang

Dr. Booth received his Diploma from Cumberland College in Williamsburg, KY; A.B. Degree
from Eastern Kentucky University; M.A. from George Peabody & Vanderbilt University; Ph.D.
in Art History from the University of Georgia where he held a Carnegie Teaching Fellowship.

Dr. Booth is an internationally recognized Art Historian, museum lecturer, author and curator of
exhibitions. He has lectured at The National Gallery in Washington, DC., The National Gallery
in London, the Louvre in Paris, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and several times at the
National Palace Museum in Taiwan as well as many galleries and lecture halls in American
colleges and Universities. Dr. Booth is Professor Emeritus in Art History from Morehead State
University where he was Professor of Art, Director of the Claypool Young Art Gallery and Head
of the Department of Art.

He has developed a long list of major art exhibitions here in Kentucky and have worked on many
international art exhibitions, and have served as a museum consultant to a number of American
and foreign museums. The “Imperial China: the Art of the Horse in Chinese History” was a great
public media success with over 240,000 paid visitors from 13 foreign countries and all 50 US
states viewing the exhibition of one of a kind national treasures from Shaanxi Province, PRC.
The exhibition attracted international attention in the print, and electronic media, with coverage
in the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Reuters International Wire Service, CCTV, Chinese print
media, 55 National Newspapers, 26 national magazines and National Public Radio covering the
exhibition. The exhibition was paid for before it opened with approximately $2 million USD
donated by private and corporate entities, and earned for the International Museum of the Horse
a total of $3 million in income from the four-month exhibition. His friend Li Zhaoxing, Chinese
Ambassador to the United States of America and Foreign Minister of the PRC from 2003 – 2007
was at the opening to cut the ribbon to open the exhibition. He also was invited to be the
keynote speaker at a Sino-Kentucky Trade Conference, in Lexington, Kentucky. Dr. Booth
proposed to the Ambassador that he bring a gift to Kentucky. He announced at his speech to the
Sino-Kentucky Trade Conference that his government would purchase Kentucky Tobacco in the
amount of $50 million USD. Dr. Booth was also able to get from a very good friend, Mr. Ho Bau
Zhoung from Xian to donate a 4.2-ton bronze copy of the Flying Horse of Gansu was presented
to the City of Lexington and was unveiled at the comer of Main St. and Martin Luther King
Blvd. at the same time of the Exhibitions opening.

He worked with The International Olympic Committee on a variety of projects ranging from the
various Olympic events since that time up to the present and had an active contact with the
International Olympic Committee, in Lausanne, Switzerland. Dr. Booth worked with Dr.
Manfried Bergman, senior member of the Olympic Committee on a number of projects including
the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Dr. Booth lectured at the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan many times and served as
an advisor to its Director Chen Hsiao-YI on a remodeling of the museum’s galleries and
exhibitions which were done in haste when the collection was brought from Beijing at the end of
WWII. Their collection was in serious need of a face life, and the sample gallery was completely
redone at a cost of two million dollars.

Dr. Booth came to Morehead State University in 1970 as Department Chairman and Director of
the Claypool-Young Art Gallery. He developed the Master’s Degree program which allowed the
recruitment of many graduate students from the US and China. He served as the Advisor for
hundreds of students who were recruited from Eastern Kentucky and beyond for undergraduates
as well. Many of his students have continued to stay in touch over the years.