Harvard Art Museums welcome 2026 fellows
The latest group of scholars.
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.—
The Harvard Art Museums announce the latest group of scholars in the museums’ longstanding Fellowship Program, designed to broaden the experience of those embarking on professional museum careers in art history and related fields, conservation and conservation science, and museum education. This group of eleven Fellows join the museums’ three curatorial divisions (Asian and Mediterranean Art, European and American Art, and Modern and Contemporary Art), the Division of Academic and Public Programs, and all four labs of the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies (analytical, objects, paper, and paintings).
Division of Academic and Public Programs
• Talia Idelson, Cunningham Fellow in Academic and Public Programs
Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art
• Penny Coombe, Kelekian Curatorial Fellow in Ancient Art
Division of European and American Art
• Alec Aldrich, Stanley H. Durwood Foundation Curatorial Fellow
Division of Modern and Contemporary Art
• Krisztina Ilko, Stefan Engelhorn Curatorial Fellow in the Busch-Reisinger Museum
• Danielle Smith, Emily Rauh Pulitzer Curatorial Fellow in Contemporary Drawings
• Vuk Vuković, Hakuta Family Nam June Paik Curatorial Fellow
• Sasha Whittaker, John R. and Barbara Robinson Family Curatorial Fellow in Photography
Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies
• Daisy Diamond, Objects Conservation Fellow
• Caitlin Green, Richard I. Shader Fellow in Paintings Conservation
• Heini Korhonen, Craigen W. Bowen Paper Conservation Fellow
• Natasha Reich, Beal Family Postgraduate Fellow in Conservation Science
During their one- or two-year appointments, participants in the Fellowship Program become integral members of staff, collaborating with colleagues across the institution. Fellows contribute to the multidisciplinary work of the museums by conducting scientific research on the materials and techniques used to create artworks in the collections, developing conservation treatment plans for works of art in the collections, conducting original research on the collections, organizing thematic displays in the collections galleries, assisting with exhibition and interpretation planning, and leading class visits and facilitating the museums’ Graduate Student Teacher Program.
Fellows participate in interdisciplinary teaching and contribute to a rich variety of public and academic programs, including gallery talks and Art Study Center seminars. They also present their original scholarship through articles for the museums’ website and in annual public Fellows Talks. The next series of talks will take place on Friday, April 30, 2027.
"The fellows are critical to our ability to deliver on our mission as a teaching museum,” said Sarah Ganz Blythe, the Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Director of the Harvard Art Museums. “We are deeply grateful to the many generous donors who make these positions possible. Through their research, creativity, and commitment, our fellows bring fresh energy and critical insight to the museum, and their contributions help shape our work across the institution.”
Alumni of this program currently hold positions at institutions including the Art Institute of Chicago, Balboa Art Conservation Center, Berlinische Galerie, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Block Museum of Art, Boston College, British Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Delaware Art Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Hunterian Museum & Art Gallery, J. Paul Getty Museum, Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, Kanagawa University, Kunsthaus Zürich, Leiden University, Menil Drawing Institute, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Morgan Library & Museum, National Gallery of Art, Rijksmuseum, Saint Louis Art Museum, Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, Spencer Museum of Art, Van Gogh Museum, Yale Center for British Art, and Yale University Art Gallery.
The Fellows Program expands on a long history of teaching and training museum professionals at the Harvard Art Museums. As the seat of the Harvard Fine Arts Department in the early 20th century, Fogg Museum staff taught graduate-level courses such as the “Museum Course,” in which Associate Director Paul J. Sachs offered practical training in the burgeoning fields of museum curatorship and management, and the “Egg and Plaster Course,” in which Director Edward Waldo Forbes led hands-on experiments with artist materials and techniques. Forbes’s interest in artist materials led to the founding of the Department of Technical Studies in 1928, a first-of-its kind department that played a crucial role in the development and evolution of the art conservation field. Now known as the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, it remains a world leader in fine arts conservation, research, and training. Today, the Harvard Art Museums continue to develop generations of leaders through other training opportunities, including the Ho Family Student Guide Program, the Graduate Student Teacher Program, and undergraduate- and graduate-level internships.
