For the last six years, Kate Fowle has divided her time between Moscow, where she was until recently the chief curator at the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, and New York City, where she has been director-at-large at Independent Curators International (ICI).

Now Ms. Fowle will be planted here full-time as the new director of MoMA PS1, the museum in Long Island City, Queens, known for its inventive contemporary arts programming. The British-born Ms. Fowle will be only the third leader in the institution’s 43-year history. The museum announced her appointment on Wednesday.

“It’s an institution that I’ve known for years and years and years,” said Ms. Fowle in a telephone interview. The curator, who was born in Kent, England, added that she first visited the museum’s former studio program when she was living in London in the ’ 90s.

“I love the second skin,” she added, saying that she was referring to the museum’s lingering aura of past exhibitions, “ the legacy artists that have left.”