Alisa Chiles is the new Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Decorative Arts, 1890 to the Present at the Virginia Museum of the Fine Arts. | Photo by Sandra Sellars, © 2024 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
THE VIRGINIA MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS (VMFA) in Richmond, Va., has built a prized collection of more than 3,100 decorative arts objects spanning furniture, ceramics, glass, works on paper, jewelry, and metalworks. The collection includes “the finest holdings of Art Nouveau and Art Deco outside of Paris, as well as the museum’s extensive Fabergé collection, which is considered the most important outside of Russia,” according to VMFA.
Alisa Chiles recently joined the museum and will oversee the collection as Sydney and Francis Lewis Curator of Decorative Arts, 1890 to the Present. Chiles previously served as assistant curator of European Decorative Arts and Sculpture at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA). After an international search, her new appointment at VMFA was announced Jan. 9 and she officially started at VMFA on Jan. 10.
“I am delighted to welcome Alisa to the staff at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Alisa will play a vital role in upcoming acquisitions, future installations and the stewardship and interpretation of works of art in the museum’s renowned decorative arts collection,” VMFA Director and CEO Alex Nyerges said in a statement.
Chiles specializes in Art Nouveau and Art Deco and has made it a priority in her curatorial practice to broaden perspectives and contexts by considering European decorative arts through a more global lens. Toward that end, she has researched the identity of makers and the origins of materials, which can be central to illuminating the history of decorative objects. For example, mahogany wood used to make colonial furniture was harvested by enslaved labor in the Caribbean, a fact not traditionally included in the narrative describing objects in the field.
Alisa Chiles specializes in Art Nouveau and Art Deco and has made it a priority in her curatorial practice to broaden perspectives and contexts by considering European decorative arts through a more global lens.
At the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Chiles became assistant curator of European Decorative Arts and Sculpture in 2021. The department is comprised of more than 22,000 objects ranging from medieval art and contemporary design. She was responsible for collection objects dating from the 18th century to present day. Over the past few years, Chiles installed galleries and period rooms employing her expansive approach, bringing together seemingly diverse objects to explore connections across collections and continents. Chiles initially joined PMA as an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow (2019-20).
Previously, Chiles spent six years in the European Sculpture and Decorative Arts department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Between her tenure at The Met and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, she pursued her doctorate. Chiles earned a Ph.D., in art history from the University of Pennsylvania, where the title of dissertation was “Dueling Designs: The French-German Rivalry and Modernism in the Decorative Arts, 1890–1939.” Her academic background also includes an M.A., in art history from New York University and a B.A., in art history from Stanford University, where the subject of her honors thesis was Hector Guimard, the French Art Nouveau architect and designer.
“Alisa’s strong scholarly background and innovative curatorial approach make her an exceptional choice for this endowed curatorial position,” VMFA Artistic Director and Chief Curator Michael Taylor said in a statement. “…I can’t wait to see the acquisitions, exhibitions and permanent collection displays she makes at VMFA.”
In recent years, the number of Black curators hired at U.S. art museums has been increasing. Few however, are represented in the decorative arts. Chiles’s peers in the field include Lauren Cross and Marie-Laure Buku Pongo. Cross was appointed associate curator of American decorative arts at Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, Calif., in 2023. Marie-Laure Buku Pongo joined the Frick Collection in New York in 2020. Last summer she was promoted from assistant to associate curator curator of decorative arts at the Frick.
At VMFA, Chiles is succeeding Barry Shifman, who retired from the decorative arts position earlier this month after 17 years at VMFA. She said she is excited about the opportunity.
“I am thrilled to join VMFA and work with its extraordinary collection and dedicated team,” Chiles said in a statement. “I greatly admire VMFA’s commitment to inclusivity and making all visitors feel at home. I’m excited to support this mission and look forward to helping create meaningful and inspiring connections between people and the decorative arts.” CT
BOOKSHELF
Alisa Chiles contributed to the exhibition catalog “Hector Guimard: Art Nouveau to Modernism.” In 1997, VMFA published “Faberge: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.” In recent years, catalogs published to accompany VMFA exhibitions focused on African American art include “Dawoud Bey: Elegy” and “Whitfield Lovell: Passages” and “Benjamin Wigfall & Communication Village,” as well as “Isaac Julien: Lessons of the Hour – Frederick Douglass,” and “The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse,” along with “Working Together: Louis Draper and the Kamoinge Workshop” and “Howardena Pindell: What Remains To Be Seen.” Also consider, “The Gregory Gift” authored by Marie-Laure Buku Pongo last year. The catalog documents a collection exhibition at The Frick based on a gift of 28 works “ranging from Limoges enamels to Saint-Porchaire ware to Rosalba Carriera pastels.”
