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The Lenfest Challenge
 Chairman Emeritus Gerry Lenfest
The Philadelphia Museum of Art is steward to an extraordinary collection of works of art—cared for, studied and conserved by, and presented to the public by a nationally esteemed group of museum professionals and practitioners. Endowed positions affirm the centrality of these roles—and of the individuals who fill them—to the life and mission of the Museum. Holding an endowed position is a sign of esteem and honor that links an eminent staff member with a visionary benefactor, commemorating a donor's connection to the Museum in perpetuity.
Museum Chairman Emeritus Gerry Lenfest, together with his wife, Marguerite, has established an extraordinary matching-grant program--The Lenfest Challenge--designed to endow twenty-nine senior and mid-level staff positions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. These positions span curatorial, conservation, library, archives, education, and publishing functions. When complete, The Lenfest Challenge will have raised a total of $54 million in new funds for the Museum's endowment.
Structured as a 1:1 match, this initiative enables donors to name positions of their choice in perpetuity. Donors can endow a position in their own name or in the name of someone they wish to honor, and may use charitable bequests to finance up to half of their Lenfest Challenge commitment. For more information about The Lenfest Challenge, please call 215-684-7358.
Positions remaining to be endowed
- Senior Conservator of Works of Art on Paper
 Nancy Ash
As Senior Conservator of Works of Art on Paper, Nancy Ash is responsible not only for performing the highly specialized conservation treatments required for some of the Museum's most delicate objects, but also for advising on their exhibition, handling, and storage.
Nancy, who majored in art history at Vassar College before continuing her studies at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts, realized during one of her graduate courses that she loved direct involvement with works of art and that she had to become a conservator. She went on to work at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. for eleven years and then at the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts in Philadelphia before joining the Museum's staff in 1991.
Among the many highlights of her career, Nancy served as a member of the American Institute for Conservation of Artistic and Historic Works Ethics and Standards Committee, a group that produced the field's revised Code of Ethics in 1994. In 1998, she co-authored Watermarks in Rembrandt Prints, a systematic study of watermarks in the papers used in Rembrandt's etchings (recorded through beta radiography) that was called "a landmark in Rembrandt print studies" by Martin Royalton-Kisch of the British Museum.
Nancy's more recent accomplishments have included a joint project in conjunction with the 2008 exhibition James Castle: A Retrospective, examining and characterizing the materials in more than 300 of Castle's works--most of which were made with soot, spit, and other unconventional mediums. Today, she is studying the Museum's significant collection of sixteenth-century Italian chiaroscuro woodcuts, working with Associate Curator of Prints and Drawings, Shelley Langdale, and with Senior Conservation Scientist, Beth Price. Nancy has also kept busy with the technical side of her work, collaborating with a software programmer to develop the Conservation Tracker System, a database for the storage and retrieval of conservation records and digital images.
- Curator of Drawings
 Ann Percy
As part of the Museum's Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, Curator of Drawings Ann Percy is responsible for about 12,000 works of art--among them masterpieces by the likes of Cézanne, Seurat, Degas, Klee, Picasso, and Braque. Her many duties involve planning exhibitions and installations and producing the accompanying publications, presenting papers and lectures for the scholarly community and the public alike, and assessing the fragile collection for conservation purposes. All the while, she is continually researching and proposing new acquisitions while simultaneously building relationships with collectors, sponsors, artists, and dealers.
With degrees from Sweet Briar College and Pennsylvania State University, as well as a Ph.D. in art history from the University of London's Courtauld Institute of Art, Ann began her career as the art history editor at the Pennsylvania State University Press. She came to the Museum as Assistant Curator of Drawings in 1972, ultimately achieving the position of Curator in 1984. Her path has been distinguished by a prestigious roster of awards and fellowships here and abroad, and the exhibitions with which she has been involved reflect both her own vast experience as well as the diversity of the Museum's holdings. One of her more recent shows, for example, was 2008's acclaimed James Castle: A Retrospective, the first comprehensive museum exhibition featuring the work of this self-taught artist. Building on its momentum, Ann is currently organizing another exhibition featuring similar types of art, this time from the fine collection of Philadelphians Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz. These works are promised gifts to the Museum--gifts that will increase its holdings of "outsider" art by about 60% and make Philadelphia a leading destination to study this fascinating field.
- Curator of European Decorative Arts after 1700
 Kathryn Bloom Hiesinger
Holding degrees from Wellesley College and Harvard University, where she earned her doctorate, Kathryn Bloom Hiesinger began her career in the Museum's European Decorative Arts and Sculpture Department as a Curatorial Assistant in 1970. In 1974, she was promoted to Curator, a role she has held ever since. Throughout the years, Kathy has played an essential role in implementing the department's mission to interpret, display, and develop the Museum's collections of European decorative arts.
She has curated exhibitions large and small, among them the award-winning Japanese Design: A Survey Since 1950, and Designing Modern, which was the inaugural exhibition in the Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building's Collab Gallery. During her distinguished tenure, Kathy has also recommended several important purchases that range from a Louis XVI gilt bronze chandelier to early twentieth-century glass and ceramics made at and for the Wiener Werkstätte in Vienna. Kathy has facilitated a number of significant gifts as well, among them an engraved silver Feuchère centerpiece, a gift from Dr. and Mrs. Joseph Sataloff; an extraordinary pair of early eighteenth-century ceramic goats from the Meissen porcelain factory as a bequest of John T. Dorrance, Jr.; and a collection of artist furniture from the Lannan Foundation. Kathy is also the author of numerous journal articles and catalogues--including Collecting Modern: Design at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Since 1876 (2010). This lavishly-illustrated publication serves as a vital reference for anyone interested in the history of museums, decorative arts, and design.
In addition to her work at the Museum, Kathy has served as an instructor at Harvard University, New York University, and the University of Pennsylvania; as a professor of Interior Design at the Moore College of Art; and as a lecturer at numerous distinguished institutions around the country. In 2000 she was named Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the government of France for distinction in and services to the arts.
- Conservator of Modern and Contemporary Paintings
 Suzanne Penn
Renowned for their richness and depth, the Museum's collection of Modern and Contemporary paintings range from iconic pieces by the masters of modern art to challenging, cutting-edge contemporary works. For the past 25 years, Suzanne Penn has been the conservator responsible for the study and care of this vital and growing part of the Museum's holdings.
In addition to her duties attending to the preservation and restoration of modern and contemporary paintings, Suzanne has worked closely with her curatorial colleagues--conducting scholarly research and organizing exhibitions, evaluating potential acquisitions, and determining the ways in which works are presented in the galleries. She co-curated 2002's Barnett Newman exhibition, and also contributed to the accompanying catalogue and symposium proceedings. In fact, her writings on Newman were even included in the 2004 publication Modern Art, New Museums.
Suzanne's more recent accomplishments include the challenging restoration of Arshile Gorky's Woman with a Palette--the successful completion of which was, in part, the impetus for the Museum's 2009 exhibition Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective. Her groundbreaking research and writing on the work of Michelango Pistoletto, published in the catalogue for the 2010 exhibition Michelangelo Pistoletto: From One to Many, has also proven to be an invaluable resource on the artist.
Beyond her expertise in modern and contemporary paintings, Suzanne has a keen interest and skill in educational programming. She has also brought a wide range of art historical and conservation subjects to broad audiences through the numerous documentaries which she has produced and directed. Among them are An Eakins Masterpiece Restored: Seeing the Gross Clinic Anew, Painting and Power: Pontormo, Bronzino and the Medici, and A Sharp Eye on Nature--for which she received a Muse Award from the American Association of Museums.
- Conservator of Decorative Arts and Sculpture
 Melissa S. Meighan
Overseeing the methods and materials that are used in the examination, treatment, safe storage, and exhibition of a collection that dates back to 2500 BCE is among the top priorities of the Conservator of Decorative Arts and Sculpture, but the responsibilities do not end there. The Conservator must also be aware of various aspects of installation, handling, packing, and shipping that could affect an object's long term condition, while at the same time supervising a laboratory and managing a staff of conservators, fellows, and interns. Today, that role is filled by Melissa S. Meighan, who first came to the Museum in 1983 as a National Museum Act Advance Intern. She subsequently held the positions of Assistant and Associate Curator of Decorative Arts before assuming her current title in 1996.
Melissa's interest in the medium grew from her early field experience in ancient Near Eastern archeology, as well as work in studio art and a passion for making pottery. She completed her studies at the Conservation Center, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, where she earned an MA degree and a certification in conservation. Since joining the Museum's staff, Melissa has worked with important examples of ceramics including the Museum's vast collection of Dutch tiles, a rare seventeenth-century Mexican vase, and a pair of magnificent sixteenth-century vases from Urbino by Orazio Fontana. Her commitment to the Museum's holdings of sculpture is similarly impressive and has encompassed intensive work with objects by Thomas Eakins and Constantin Brancusi, as well as with the collections of the Rodin Museum.
A few of Melissa's other rewarding projects include a 2007 collaboration that she implemented with the Art Institute of Chicago, involving the documentation and sampling of sixteen bronze sculptures, and coordinating the comparison of three late eighteenth-century busts of Benjamin Franklin by Jean-Antoine Houdon. For the latter study, Melissa initiated the use of high-density digital scanning as a tool in her work. She carried out another technical study for the Museum's exhibition Marcel Duchamp: Étant donnés, this time involving research in Paris, Stockholm, and Buenos Aires on fabrication of the work's female figure. With regard to the permanent collection, Melissa's skill and expertise has been invaluable in preparing objects for photography--namely works of art in the Museum's great collections of arms and armor and American silver.
- Conservator of Furniture and Woodwork
 Behrooz Salimnejad
The Museum's furniture and woodwork conservators are responsible for the care of a vast collection of furniture and other wooden artifacts including frames, architectural elements, and period-room interiors spanning from the fourteenth century to the present. Leading this talented group is Behrooz Salimnejad, the Museum's current Conservator of Furniture and Woodwork.
Behrooz comes from a distinguished family tradition in the arts that includes carpet design and restoration. His career path was nurtured early on during an appren¬ticeship with the Khiabani Art Studios in Tabriz, Azerbaijan, where he explored and honed his skills in areas including painting, sculpting, furniture making and restoration, gilding, and carving. After earning a BA in fine arts `from Tehran University and an MS degree in art from Indiana State University, Behrooz continued his education in Germany at Nurnberg Art Academy and Regensburg University before returning to the States to study chemistry for art conservation at Kutztown University. Fluent in English, German, Persian, Azeri, and Turkish, he brings an invaluable multicultural perspective to his work.
Behrooz began at the Philadelphia Museum of Art as a volunteer in 1991. The next year, he officially joined the staff as Assistant Conservator of Furniture; advancing to Associate Conservator in 1995, and finally being named Conservator of Furniture and Woodwork in 2004. Among his recent projects are an examination and intensive instrumental analysis of early Italian cassoni (ornate Renaissance wedding chests) in the collection; the conservation treatment of an Alphonse Mattia table and chairs; and a cross-section analysis and wood identification for a group of nineteenth-century painted chairs--the results of which were published in The Magazine Antiques in May 2006. Behrooz was also behind the conservation treatment of a gilded French console table, which led to a research project that was presented at the 2005 American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works.
Currently, Behrooz is researching and documenting the styles, workmanship, and materials of frames by American artist Frederick W. Harer, as well as conducting a comparative study of European gilding materials and techniques that will shed new light on misunderstood practices and recreate traditional surface treatments. In addition to this, Behrooz is an artist himself. Not only is his work regularly shown in area exhibitions, but he also teaches a variety of courses--among them the chemistry of wood, three-dimensional design, drawing, and painting--at Bucks County Community College in Newtown, Pennsylvania.
- Associate Curator of European Decorative Arts
 Donna Corbin
The Associate Curator of European Decorative Arts is pivotal in helping to build, preserve, and promote the Museum's collections--cataloguing and interpreting objects, increasing access through exhibitions, publications, lectures, tours, and the Museum's website, and working with the Education Department to provide regular training for guides and to build relationships with the academic community. Today, this critical position is held by Donna Corbin. Donna joined the Museum's staff as a Research and Collections Assistant in 1981, before being promoted to Assistant Curator in the Department of European Decorative Arts and Sculpture in 1992 and to Associate Curator in 2004.
Over the course of her twenty-eight years at the Museum, Donna has curated a number of small loan exhibitions and collections-based installations alike. She has catalogued thousands of objects, with a particular emphasis on ceramics, glass, silver, enamels, jewelry, and chess sets. Through her surveys, she has deaccessioned objects when appropriate, subsequently raising funds for new acquisitions. In addition, she has recommended a number of important purchases and facilitated several significant gifts.
Donna is also responsible for initiating most of her department's installation changes in the galleries. She recently led the effort to renovate a small space on the Museum's second floor, where parts of the collection that were once only rarely seen may now be displayed. Her inaugural installation in this gallery included pieces from the Museum's wonderful collection of 18th-century English silver.
Donna has also lectured on a range of topics from 18th-century Sèvres biscuit figures to English country houses, and has published widely. She holds a BA in art history and an MA from Temple University, and she currently sits on the Board of Visitors of Temple's Tyler School of Art. She served as president of the American Ceramic Circle (ACC) from 2004-2008, and is currently the vice president and editor of the organization's newsletter. In addition, she has planned a number of symposia for the ACC all over the country.
- Associate Curator of Prints and Drawings
 Shelley R. Langdale
Working closely with other department curators as well as conservators and support staff, the Associate Curator of Prints and Drawings plays a crucial role in helping to keep the Museum's Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs vibrant, relevant, and accessible. Currently in the position is Shelley R. Langdale, who began her career at the Museum as an Assistant Curator in 2002 before being named Associate Curator of Prints and Drawings in 2006. Shelley holds a BA in art history with honors from Bowdoin College and an MA in the history of art from Williams College, and she held curatorial positions at Harvard University's Fogg Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Cleveland Museum of Art before coming to Philadelphia.
Over the past several years, she has organized and collaborated on a number of exhibitions, presentations, publications, and events not only in the Museum, but also in the greater Philadelphia community and beyond. Among her noteworthy accomplishments, Shelley presented a survey of screenprints in the exhibition Popular, Pop, & Post-Pop: Color Screenprints 1930s to Now in 2003-04; co-curated the international loan exhibition Edvard Munch's "Mermaid" and co-authored the accompanying publication in 2005; and oversaw the Museum's presentation of the traveling exhibition Grand Scale: Monumental Prints in the Age of Dürer and Titian in 2009. More recently, she organized 2010's Picturing the West: Yokohama Prints 1859-1870s, and was a member of the curatorial team for the inaugural presentation of Philagrafika 2010. As a key part of this international contemporary art festival, she was directly responsible for the Museum's installations of work by Colombian artist Óscar Muñoz and Japanese artist Tabaimo.
Throughout, Shelley has worked tirelessly to bring the permanent collection to the public--as a lecturer, co-coordinator of educational initiatives, and presenter for special Museum groups. She is currently working on an exhibition entitled Full Spectrum: Prints from the Brandywine Workshop, and is researching the Museum's extensive collection of Italian 16th-century chiaroscuro woodcuts in preparation for a major loan exhibition that she is organizing with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Beyond that, she is behind a successful monthly curatorial brown bag lunch program, is a board member and Program Committee chair at The Print Center, Philadelphia, and serves on the board of the Lower East Side Printshop in Manhattan. The work that she does as Associate Curator of Prints and Drawings is far-reaching and integral to the institution as a whole.
- Conservator of Paintings
 Teresa A. Lignelli
The Conservator of Paintings oversees methods and materials used for the treatment, safe storage, exhibition, environmental requirements, and those aspects of installing, handling, packing, and shipping that affect the condition of works of art and their long-term preservation. While the focus is on the technical examination and treatment of paintings in the collections, the Conservator also assists with exhibition planning and providing advice on handling, mounting, packing, and travel restrictions--in addition to managing the painting conservation laboratory; writing condition reports, proposals, and records; and publishing findings. Today, the Conservator of Paintings is Teresa A. Lignelli, who first began her work at the Museum in 1986 as an intern completing her graduate studies.
Over the next four years, Terry interspersed grant-funded conservation projects at the Museum with intensive conservation training and practice in Italy. Because of her extraordinary abilities as a conservator, in 1991 she was asked to return to the Museum to play a key role in the most extensive paintings conservation project in its history--the study and treatment of numerous major masterpieces for the reinstallation of the collections of European art from the twelfth – nineteenth centuries. In 1995, toward the end of the project, she was hired as a member of the permanent staff. Terry's work is also vital to the lending and borrowing of works of art for special exhibitions. She is directly responsible for the conservation-related assessment and preparation of hundreds of pre-twentieth century paintings requested for loan each year, and her collaboration with curatorial colleagues and staff are critical to the safe transport of paintings representing the Museum in exhibitions all over the world. Likewise, she has been the point conservator for dozens of in-house exhibitions, coordinating condition reporting and collaborating on installation complexities.
Terry's experiences in Italy, coupled with a keen intellectual curiosity about the history and theory of restoration, provided her with perspectives that have profoundly informed her work. In addition, she serves as a teacher and mentor, sharing her expertise through lectures, workshops, or side-by-side instruction.
- Librarian for Collection Development
 Mary Wasserman
Combining expertise in art history and fine arts scholarship with extensive knowledge of the Museum's holdings and a strong understanding of current library innovations, the Librarian for Collection Development is dedicated to nurturing the growth of a very distinctive collection. Today, this multi-faceted job is held by Mary Wassermann. An art history graduate of Kent State University, Mary began her professional career in Washington, D.C. at the Library of Congress before joining the National Gallery of Art. During her tenure there, she earned an MS degree in Library Science from the Catholic University of America. In 1995, she came to Philadelphia to join the Museum's staff as Slide Librarian. She was promoted to Associate Librarian in 1997, and to her current position in 2005.
Over the course of her career at the Museum, Mary has been instrumental in updating and streamlining the storage and organization of Library materials. As Slide Librarian, she not only managed the Museum's collection of 200,000 slides and digital images, but also improved access to the collection by standardizing slide cataloging and filing systems. She initiated new policies for lending and image duplication, and coordinated the needs of various Museum departments in order to provide images for exhibition planning, guides training, and educational programs. From 1999 to 2001, she served on the data standards advisory group for the implementation of the Museum's collection management system (TMS), contributing her knowledge of information protocols to make it more accessible to Museum staff. Mary has also curated a number of Library exhibitions, among them Gorky in New York, Celebrating Picasso, and Good Modern Work: Women Gallerists in America.
Mary has furthered her career development through involvement in professional organizations such as the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA), where she served on the Development Committee and was Chair of the Visual Resources Division. She has also contributed to ARLIS/NA publications, and has given several presentations on a variety of library-related subjects outside of the Museum. She was honored in 2005 with the Nancy DeLaurier Award, given by the Visual Resources Association in recognition of her efforts launching the inaugural 2004 Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources and Image Management.
Strongly supporting the view that a library is essentially organic and must continually evolve, Mary is committed to ensuring that the Library remains a fundamental and vital resource for the growth of the Museum.
- Librarian for Reader Services
 Evan Towle
Directing all Library users to the information they need, working closely with curators to assemble important materials for upcoming exhibitions, and assisting the conservation department, publishing personnel, and volunteer staff as they develop their projects are just a few of the responsibilities of the Librarian for Reader Services. Today, this important role is held by Evan B. Towle, who came to the Museum in 2005 as the Visual and Digital Resources Librarian and advanced to his current position in 2008. In his time here, he has contributed greatly to the expansion and development of the Library's operations and its capacity to serve both Museum staff and non-staff visiting researchers--especially following the Library's move in 2007 to its handsome new facilities in the Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building. He has also developed comprehensive training and support sessions in the use of visual, printed, and digital resources for teaching and research.
Evan's professional experience began as Archives and Special Collections Assistant as well as the Media Resources Coordinator at Mount Holyoke College, where he graduated cum laude with a BA in anthropology and a minor in English. He also holds a Master's degree in Library Science with a concentration in Archives Management from Simmons College.
Upon moving to Philadelphia in 2001, Evan worked as the Assistant Archivist and Photograph Curator for Temple University's Urban Archives, a collection documenting Philadelphia in the twentieth century. He has also worked as a Reference Librarian at Temple University's main library. Evan is very active in the professional community as well--he is a member of the Visual Resources Association (VRA) and the Summer Educational Institute Implementation Committee, the Art Library Society of North America, and the Museum Computer Network.
- Manager of Family and Children's Programs
 Emily Schreiner
From bringing the Museum's collection to the youngest of visitors in a fresh and stimulating way to creating and implementing programs and experiences that help shape developing minds, the Manager of Family and Children's Programs is committed to nurturing the next generation of visitors, patrons, and champions of the PMA.
Today, this key position is held by Emily Schreiner, whose own involvement with the Museum began when she was just a child herself. Her passion for family and children's programming, however, took root later when she was a member of the Museum's 1999 summer internship program, able to witness first-hand the power of art educators to transform the visitor's experience.
Emily holds a BA from Wesleyan University, and an MA in art history with a concentration in contemporary art and visual culture, as well as a certificate in Museum Studies focused on Museum Education, from Tufts University. She was a Curatorial Assistant at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, and worked as the Coordinator of Education Programs at the Williams College Museum of Art before returning to Philadelphia and taking up her role as Manager of Family and Children's Programs in early 2009. In her time here, she has expanded the programming options available to families to include new popular offerings such as Stroller Tours, the First Sunday Family Studio, and interactive printed children's activity guides for ticketed special exhibitions.
Emily's vision and the commitment to innovation that she brings to her work promises a bright future not just for the Museum, but for the countless children whose lives she is inspiring.
Endowed Positions
- The Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Curator of Contemporary Art
- The Martha Hamilton Morris Archivist
- The Constance Williams Curator of Education, School and Teacher Programs
- The William T. Ranney Director of Publishing
- The Gloria and Jack Drosdick Associate Curator of European Painting and Sculpture before 1900 and the Rodin Museum
- Senior Scientist (title to be determined)
- The Brodsky Curator of Photographs, Alfred Stieglitz Center
- The Kathy and Ted Fernberger Curator of Prints
- The Montgomery-Garvan Associate Curator of American Decorative Arts
- The Aronson Senior Conservator of Paintings and Vice Chair of Conservation
- Curator of Chinese Art (title to be determined)
- The Le Vine Associate Curator of Costume and Textiles and Supervising Curator for the Study Room
- Associate Curator of Indian and Himalayan Art (title to be determined)
- The Zoë and Dean Pappas Curator of Education, Public Programs
- The Penny and Bob Fox Conservator of Costume and Textiles
For more information, please contact Development by phone at (215) 684-7750, by fax at (215) 236-0796, or by e-mail at .
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