The Venice Biennale, the world’s longest-running large-scale survey of contemporary art, looked locally and internationally to find a curator for its next edition — and selected a leader who personifies both. She is Cecilia Alemani, the curator of New York’s High Line, the organization announced Friday.

Ms. Alemani, born in Milan in 1977, has directed the High Line’s art program since 2011, where she has commissioned large-scale works by artists such as Kerry James Marshall, Carol Bove, El Anatsui and Sarah Sze. She has also turned the elevated park into a venue for group shows, such as the current painting exhibition “En Plein Air,” and for performances by Maria Hassabi, Cally Spooner and other artists and choreographers. Recently the High Line inaugurated a major new sculptural commission at the park’s spur near Hudson Yards; its first artist is Simone Leigh, whose 16-foot bronze “Brick House” is on view through September.

From 2012 to 2017, Ms. Alemani was curator for Frieze Projects, the noncommercial sector of the art fair Frieze New York. She also has experience at the Venice Biennale, where in 2017 she boiled down the Italian national pavilion — long derided as messy and artistically conservative — to an ambitious three-artist showcase, complete with a massive reflecting pool by Andreotta Calò that alluded to Venice’s ongoing erosion. (Ms. Alemani’s return to the Venetian lagoon is something of a family affair; her husband, the New Museum curator Massimiliano Gioni, organized an acclaimed edition in 2013.)

Only four other women have organized the Venice Biennale in its century-long history, but none have been from Italy. “As the first Italian woman to hold this position, I understand and appreciate the responsibility and also the opportunity offered to me,” Ms. Alemani said. “I intend to give voice to artists to create unique projects that reflect their visions and our society.”