Alumni News

See what our grads are up to ...

Eileen Prendergast, 2002, Chicago Botanic Garden

Currently, I work at the Chicago Botanic Garden as Family Programs Coordinator - something I never imagined doing while at GW, studying exhibit development and history. After graduation, I worked at the Des Plaines History Center, developing exhibits, managing the education program, coordinating volunteers, and handling publicity. While wearing so many hats, I discovered I loved to teach, and I thoroughly enjoy managing and teaching hands-on, interactive programs that allow kids and adults to expore science and nature at the Botanic Garden.

Kelly E. Cornell, 2004, Laguna Art Museum

I am currently the Director of Development for the Laguna Art Museum in Laguna Beach, CA. I moved to Califronia in 2006 for the position after three years of doing development in the performing arts. In my position I am responsible for overseeing all of the Museum's contributed income programs. I seek out sponsorships for our exhibitions and events, run a successful Annual Fund Campaign and have worked on restructuring and broadening the Museum's membership program and campaigns. Laguna Art Museum has a track record of breaking new ground in the study of American art and pop culture from a California perspective. The Museum has not only lead scholarship in this area but has also been willing to take an unorthodeox look at the contributions that California art has made.

Monica Turcich, 2002, Christie's in London

When my husband was offered a job in London, we seized the chance to live abroad. I quickly found myself at Christie's, although I had previously rather considered auctions to be a bit of a Dark Side to the art world. Instead, I find that we're concerned with many of the same issues: CITES, insurance, object handling, ethical standards, etc. My position combines the collections management aspects of my training with a degree of research and writing for sale catalogues, as well as with administrative tasks, client facing responsibilities, and even exhibitions skills--we have a public view of all the lots in each sale. It's rather like putting up a 400 object exhibit in two days, having it open for four, and taking it all down again in an afternoon.

Maeve Gaynor, 2005, National Law Enforcement Museum

I am the Registrar and Collections Manager for the National Law Enforcement Museum, a museum-in-development slated to open in Washington, D.C., in 2011. After graduating from GW's Museum Studies program, where I focused on Collections Management and American Studies, in 2005, I served as a Collections Management Fellow for the Museum and then moved to my current position in early 2006. As the primary collections staff member, I am responsible for documentation and object care for the entire collection (3,200+ objects), establishing and continuing to outfit our off-site storage facility, and serving as a liaison with the exhibit design firm regarding artifact information.

Kelly Rushing, 2005, Eiteljorg Museum Museum of American Indians and Western Art

I am the registrar at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis.  The museum contains one of the best Native American and Western art collections in the world and is a leader in promoting contemporary Native American artists.    I am responsible for a variety of collections management tasks, including right and reproductions and managing the paperwork, packing, and shipping for an active loan program.  Before the Eiteljorg, I was the registrar at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in northeast DC for one year.  I graduated from GW with an emphasis in Collections Management and an academic core in Anthropology.

Elizabeth Bland, 2005, National Library of Medicine

I am currently the Exhibition Specialist for the Exhibition Program at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, MD.   I am responsible for a wide gamut of tasks related to the exhibition development process, including: acquiring and organizing exhibit assets; creating and managing exhibit databases; gaining use permissions; working with designers, vendors, and researchers; developing exhibition themes and topics; and various curatorial projects.  Before working at NLM, I worked in digital imaging preservation at the Smithsonian and the National Archives and Records Administration.  I graduated from GWU with an emphasis in Exhibition Development and an academic core in American Studies. 

Kathryn L. Erickson 1998, General Services Administration

I am the Fine Arts Specialist of the Fine Arts Program for the US General Services Administration. The Fine Arts collection is one of the nation's largest and most unique collections, consisting of over 16,000 paintings, sculpture and graphics dating from the 1850's to the present. These public works of art, located in Federal Buildings across the US, are maintained by GSA to remind the American people of their cultural heritage and the important tradition of individual creative expression. Portable works of art maintained by GSA in Washington, DC are available for loan to museums and government agencies within the Washington DC area to make them accessible to a broader audience.

Jennifer Colaguori, 2001, VSA Arts

I currently serve as the Artist Services Coordinator for VSA arts, an international nonprofit organization that works to create a society where people with disabilities can learn through, participate in, and enjoy the arts. As Artist Services Coordinator, I work directly with visual artists who have disabilities to provide them with opportunities for exhibition. Although we do not have a gallery space on site, we organize exhibitions, install them locally, and travel them throughout the world. Another component of my work is to promote cultural access for all - all of our work adheres to ADA standards. I applied to this position from a posting on the MSTD listserv, and although I am sure that my academic background and volunteer work with the disability community helped me land the job, my current supervisor is also a MSTD alum! My museum core was Exhibition Design and my academic core was Art History.

Kelly Ford, 1998, National Postal Museum

I ended up staying in DC and was the Incoming Loan Officer for the National Museum of American History for two years and the Accession Officer for the National Postal Museum for three years.

Jenny Benjamin (formerly Jenny Rozen), 1998, Direction, Museum of Vision

I oversee the management of a small museum in San Francisco. The Museum of Vision is the only museum in the United States dedicated to teaching the public about eye care. It is an educational program of Eye Care America, a public service foundation of the American Academy of Ophthamology. The museum contains over 10,000 items including artifacts, books, and an archive. My job can currently be subdivided into the following areas: fundraising, collections management, marketing and exhibits curation. In short, I do it "all". Due to budgetary constraints I currently do not have any staff, however, I have had a collections manager and an archivist here to help me in the past and as the budget improves these positions will be re-hired. Since graduation from GW I have been working with medical associations that have small museums. The first was the American Academy of Otolaryngology in Alexandria, VA where I was first hired as the Collections Manager. In a year I was promoted to be Director. I have no doubt that my training at GW was the primary reason that the organization trusted me to take over the management of their museum. I used many of the skills I learned in GW classes to be a success at this position including: budgets, legal issues and conservation. In 2001 I was recruited by a second medical association, the American Academy of Ophthalmology, to work for the Museum of Vision. They were impressed by my management skills and, again, I credit my studies at GW for my ability to handle such a strange, multi-faceted museum as the one that I run now.

Douglas Erickson, 2003, National Air and Space Museum

I am currently an assistant registrar (Museum Registration Technician) for the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. I am part of a larger department called Collections Processing Unit (CPU) and one thing that makes my job so unique is that because the registrar's office already consists of two other fulltime registrars who strictly deal with loans, accessions, and deaccession, I perform other duties not regularly done by registrars. I spend about half my time downtown at NASM and the other half out at the Garber Facility, which is next to the Smithsonian's Museum Support Center (MSC). Some of what I have mentioned above I perform out there as well as other duties such as driving a forklift to move objects, as well as load/unload objects such as aircraft, spacecraft, etc. Currently most of the work being done at Garber is to move NASM into the Museum’s new Udvar-Hazy annex at Dulles. It has been an amazing experience to be a part of a once in a lifetime move and I am sure there will not be another museum built like it in the world for a century. Additionally, I am currently working on cataloging hundreds of artifacts from two of Charles Lindbergh's flights, which literally have not been looked at since they were crated up over 40 years ago and given to NASM.

Gretchen Goodell, 2003, Mount Vernon

I am currently the Assistant Curator at George Washington's Mount Vernon in Mount Vernon, Virginia. Through my job I help create furnishing plans and interpretive scenarios in the Mansion and Outbuildings that help educate the visitor in the life of the Washingtons as members of the 18th century gentry, as well as powerful figures in the culture of the time. I also have been working on plans for a new museum that will open on the grounds in 2007. Prior to that position I worked for the U.S. General Services Administration in the Fine Arts Program working with federally-funded artwork from the 19th to the 21st century.

Matt Hofstedt, MA 1995, Associate Curator, Supreme Court

After a short stint in the Collections Management Department at the National Museum of American History, I was hired as the Collections Assistant in the Office of the Curator at the Supreme Court of the United States. I actually answered an ad I saw in the Washington Post! Over the past seven years, I have held various titles in this office and my current position is Associate Curator. As with other Federal Agencies, the Court has a collection of historical artifacts, documents and artwork collected over the years and I am primarily responsible for this collection. I also conceptualize and create exhibits for the Court building, write Information Sheets about the Court's architecture and history and do long-term research projects about the Court and the Justices who have served on it.

Terry Segal, 1982, Associate Registrar, Detroit Institute of Arts

I was hired as Assistant Cataloguer/Assistant Registrar at the Detroit Institute of Arts right before I graduated and have been there for 21 years plus. My current position is an Associate Registrar.