Jessica Todd Smith

Jessica Todd Smith is the Susan Gray Detweiler Curator of American Art and Manager of the Center for American Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where she is responsible for American painting and sculpture made between 1900 and 1960. In 2018, she curated Modern Times: American Art 1910−1950 and published American Modernism: Highlights from the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Prior arriving in Philadelphia in 2016, Smith was the Virginia Steele Scott Chief Curator of American Art at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California. At the Huntington, she worked on three expansions of the American galleries, the most recent of which opened in October 2016. She organized exhibitions including Pressed in Time: American Prints 1905-1950 (2007-8) and Three Fragments of a Lost Tale: Sculpture and Story by John Frame (2011) and wrote American Made: Highlights from the Huntington’s Art Collection (2014), the first book to focus on American art at the Huntington. Smith earned her M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University. Prior to her graduate studies, she worked in the Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and held internships at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Harvard University Art Museums. She obtained her A.B. from Harvard University where she graduated summa cum laude.

Articles Related to Jessica Todd Smith

2015-02-22

Alumni in the News | Judith Dolkart Dives in as Director of Addison Gallery

  Judith Dolkart (CCL '13) Dives in as Director of the Addison Gallery During CCL, Judith served as deputy director of art and archival collections and Gund Family Chief Curator at the Barnes Foundation, where she helped plan the relocation of the collections from Merion to the Foundation's new building ... Read More >

2016-02-10

Jessica Todd Smith (CCL Class of 2013) Named Curator of American Art and Manager of the Center for American Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

We are delighted to welcome Jessica Todd Smith (CCL Class of 2013) to the East Coast this July, when she assumes her new post as Curator of American Art and Manager of the Center for American Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Todd Smith has overseen the growing collection of ... Read More >

2019-10-09

Judith Dolkart (CCL 2013) Named Deputy Director of the Detroit Institute of Arts

Congratulations to Judith Dolkart (CCL 2013) who has been named Deputy Director of the Detroit Institute of Arts!  Dolkart has served as the director of the Addison Gallery of American Art at the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts since 2014. Prior to joining the Addison Gallery, Dolkart was the deputy director of ... Read More >

2021-12-08

Emily Ballew Neff (CCL 2013) Appointed Director of San Antonio Museum of Art

Emily Ballew Neff (CCL 2013) has been named Director of the San Antonio Museum of Art!  Most recently, Neff served as director of the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art for six years. While at the Memphis Brooks, she oversaw the museums’s relocation to a new building in downtown Memphis and instituted ... Read More >

2012-10-25

CCL Announces Class of 2013

Program Expands with International Participants New York, October 25, 2012 – The Center for Curatorial Leadership (CCL) is proud to announce the selection of its sixth class of Fellows. The Class of 2013 will comprise ten outstanding curators who begin their training in New York in January.  Carlos Basualdo, Keith L. and Katherine Sachs ... Read More >