INDIANAPOLIS, IN.- Dr. Charles L. Venable, The Melvin & Bren Simon Director and CEO of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, announced today that Rebecca J. Long has been promoted to Associate Curator of European Painting and Sculpture before 1800. She previously served as Assistant Curator.

In her new role, Long is responsible for research, collection development, exhibition development, and the presentation and interpretation of works from the IMA’s robust early European collection. A significant part of her role will be serving as the liaison for the Clowes Fund Collection and its research, care, and interpretation. Assembled by Dr. George Henry Alexander Clowes and his wife Edith Whitehill Clowes, the collection consists of Flemish, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, French and English art spanning the 14th to 19th centuries. The collection promised to the IMA includes one of Rembrandt’s earliest self-portraits. Long is overseeing production of a catalogue of the Clowes Collection, offering the first technical analyses of this important collection.

“Rebecca joined the IMA in 2008 and has since demonstrated exemplary scholarship and ability to work with the public,” said Dr. Charles L. Venable, The Melvin & Bren Simon Director and CEO. “Especially work on major exhibitions like Sacred Spain and the upcoming Matisse: Life in Color has been very impressive. I look forward to continuing to work with Rebecca as she builds the IMA’s collection and completes the Clowes cataloguing project, as well as other European art initiatives here at the IMA.”

A specialist in Spanish and Italian baroque art, Long holds a master’s degree from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University and is currently completing her doctorate in art history there. She started her career at the IMA in 2008 as the Allen Whitehill Clowes Fellow, before becoming a curatorial assistant in 2009.Long has served as curator of permanent collection exhibitions including Painted Sketches from the Eighteenth Century (2011) as well as exhibitions of works from the Samuel Josefowitz Collection of Prints from the Pont-Aven School. She is curator for the forthcoming featured exhibition Matisse, Life in Color: Masterworks from the Baltimore Museum of Art. Long will report to Ellen Lee, The Wood-Pulliam Senior Curator at the IMA.