PORTLAND, ME.- Margaret Burgess has been named Associate Curator of Modern and European Art at the Portland Museum of Art. Burgess will be responsible for overseeing the presentation and development of the Museum’s collection of 19th- and 20th-century European art, including the Joan Whitney Payson Collection, the Scott M. Black Collection, and the Albert Otten Collection. Burgess will join the staff in January 2009.

“We are delighted to have Margaret Burgess join the Museum’s curatorial staff,” said Acting Director and Chief Curator Tom Denenberg. “Meg is thoughtful, enthusiastic, and will bring great energy to the Museum’s European art exhibitions and programs.”

Most recently Burgess has worked as a Research Fellow at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. and has worked as an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Curatorial Fellow at the Cleveland Museum of Art. She has also held positions at Buckingham Palace, London; the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England; the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy; and the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. She has contributed to several exhibitions, books, and other publications including: Sargent and the Sea (2009), Barcelona & Modernity: Picasso, Gaudí, Miró, Dalí (2006), Monet in Normandy (2006), Cleveland Art (2003-2005), British Pictures, 1840-1940 (1999), and Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946 (1996). Burgess earned her Ph.D. in British and American Art and Art Criticism, and her Masters in 19th-century French Painting from the University of Oxford, England. She has an undergraduate degree in Art History from Stanford University, Palo Alto, California.

Burgess joins the Museum’s curatorial staff, which includes: Tom Denenberg, Acting Director and Chief Curator; Susan Danly, Curator of Graphics, Photography, and Contemporary Art; and Sage Lewis, Curatorial Coordinator.