TOLEDO, OH.- The Toledo Museum of Art announces that Diane C. Wright has been appointed as curator of glass. Wright begins her appointment at TMA on Nov. 13, 2017. In this role Wright will be responsible for overseeing TMAs world-renowned and growing glass and decorative arts collection, including acquisitions, research, exhibitions and publications.
Since 2014 Wright has served as the Carolyn and Richard Barry Curator of Glass at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia. She is a recognized scholar of the windows and mosaics of Louis Comfort Tiffany and his studio.
TMA is a leader in the glass art field. The Museums 74,000-square-foot Glass Pavilion, designed by SANAA, which opened in 2006 to wide acclaim, houses more than 5,000 works of art from antiquity to the 21st century and presents an array of special exhibitions, artist demonstrations and educational programs devoted to a diverse range of glass art.
Diane Wright joins the Toledo Museum of Art with an impressive background in glass arts education and curation, said Brian Kennedy, president, director and CEO of TMA. Her impressive work at the Chrysler Museum of Art, and knowledge of the glass field, including leaded-glass windows and mosaics of Tiffany Studios, are sure to continue and advance the reputation of Toledos glass collection and state-of-the-art Glass Pavilion.
Wright received a Bachelor of Arts in history from the University of Utah and a Master of Arts in the history of decorative arts from Parsons School of Design at The New School in New York. Prior to her position at the Chrysler Museum of Art, Wright was marketing and communications manager at the Pilchuck Glass School in Seattle, Marcia Brady Tucker Senior Curatorial Fellow at the Yale University Art Gallery and museum educator at the Corning Museum of Glass. She also completed graduate internships at the Chrysler Museum of Art, the Smithsonians Freer/Sackler Museums and Blair House in Washington D.C.
Among the exhibitions she has organized are Sibylle Peretti; Root and Flower: The Natural World of Joey Kirkpatrick and Flora Mace; In the Box: Giampaolo SegusoThe Song of Glass; Monir Shahroudy FarmanfarmaianInfinite Possibility: Mirror Works and Drawings, 1974-2014; Beverly Fishman: In Sickness and Health; Chihuly in the Garden and Louis C. Tiffany and the Art of Devotion.
Wright has taught courses on decorative arts and design at George Mason University, the Rhode Island School of Design, Corcoran College of Art and Design and Parsons and has presented lectures on glass art throughout the U.S. She has contributed numerous scholarly articles to journals, exhibition catalogues and books over the years.
Diane Wright will be a wonderful addition to the Toledo Museum of Art curatorial team. She is an exceptional candidate, with a compelling combination of curatorial experience and strong skills in both teaching and research, said Halona Norton-Westbrook, director of collections at TMA. We are thrilled to welcome her to the role of glass curator here in the Glass City.