Brian Kennedy (born 5 November 1961) is the Director of the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College. He was the Director of the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) in Canberra from 1997 to 2004.

Kennedy was born in Dublin and attended Clonkeen College. He received B.A. (1982), M.A.(1985) and Ph.D. (1989) degrees from University College, Dublin where he studied both art history and history. He worked in the Irish Department of Education (1982), the European Commission, Brussels (1983), and in Ireland at the Chester Beatty Library (1983-85), Government Publications Office (1985-86), and Department of Finance (1986-89). He married Mary Fiona Carlin in 1988.

He was Assistant Director at the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin from 1989 to 1997. He was Chair of the Irish Association of Art Historians from 1996-97. , and of the Council of Australian Art Museum Directors, 2001-3.