COLLECTION STORIES - Key Persons

Dr. Wetenhall spearheaded the opening of the museum at GW in 2015. Under his leadership, the museum has become a cultural center on campus that engages faculty and students through collaborative programming, and works with embassies and area NGO's on creative partnerships. The museum has received significant collections donations and major grant awards, including from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for a new contemporary art curator and from the Institute of Museum and Library Services for an online collections initiative. One of the most important accomplishments during Dr. Wetenhall's tenure has been the acquisition of the Cotsen Textile Traces Study Collection and accompanying endowment that bolsters the museum's standing as an international leader in textile scholarship. Dr. Wetenhall has 25 years of museum leadership experience, including directorships at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Fla., the Cheekwood Museum of Art in Nashville, the Carnegie Museums in Pittsburgh, and the Miami Art Museum (now Perez). He has also worked as a curator, museum consultant, and art history professor. Dr. Wetenhall holds a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College, a master's from Williams College, an MBA from Vanderbilt University, and master's and doctoral degrees from Stanford University. His current scholarship focuses on museum leadership and values. He served for ten years on the board of the American Alliance of Museums as vice-president, treasurer, and chairperson for strategic planning, as well as ten years on the U.S. National Committee of the International Council of Museums. He currently serves as vice-president for strategic planning on the board of the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries. He has received the Museum Service Award from the Southeastern Museums Conference and the Florida Association of Museums' Lifetime Achievement Award. John Wetenhall joined the museum as director in 2013. He also serves as associate professor in GW's Museum Studies graduate program.

Jordan Mangefrida

jm..@gwu.edu

Kailey Dunmire

Kaitie Golub

Karthika Audinet

Katrina Orsini

ka..@gwu.edu

Lauren Evans

la..@gwu.edu

Lauren Holt

la..@gwu.edu

Lee Talbot

Lee Talbot joined The Textile Museum as a curator in 2007. He specializes in East Asian textile history. He is also a lecturer with GW's Art History Program. Most recently, Talbot curated the exhibition Vanishing Traditions: Textiles and Treasures from Southwest China. He was also co-curator of exhibitions including Bingata! Only in Okinawa; Stories of Migration: Contemporary Artists Interpret Diaspora; China: Through the Lens of John Thomson (1868-1872); and Unraveling Identity: Our Textiles, Our Stories. His publications include exhibition catalogues, articles, and the chapters on Chinese and Korean decorative arts in History of Design: Decorative Arts and Material Culture, 1400-2000. Talbot was previously curator at the Chung Young Yang Embroidery Museum in Seoul, Korea. He graduated from Rhodes College with a bachelor's degree, and holds a MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management and a master's from Bard Graduate Center. He is completing his doctoral dissertation on Korean textiles and costume history at Bard. He serves on the board of Textile Society of America and the editorial board of Textile: The Journal of Cloth and Culture.

Lori Kartchner

Marc E. Albert

Job Titles:

Member of the Museum Board

Maria Fusco

Job Titles:

Chief
Chief Conservator, Margaret Wing Dodge Chair in Conservation

Maria Fusco has been chief conservator since 2016, following five years as associate conservator. She oversees the conservation laboratory at the museum's Avenir Foundation Conservation and Collections Resource Center. Under her leadership, the Conservation Department has expanded its role as an international resource in textile collections care, providing training to emerging and established professionals. Fusco has mentored numerous fellows and interns, including those supported by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. She also guided the lab through a complete equipment upgrade supported by the Avenir Foundation. Fusco received a bachelor's of science in biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a master's in textile conservation from the Textile Conservation Centre at the University of Southampton in England. She has worked as a conservator at institutions in New York and Denmark. She completed an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship at Los Angeles County Museum of Art and a Samuel H. Kress Conservation Fellowship at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art.