Nynne Just Christoffersen (MA 2013) has been accepted into the doctoral program at Humboldt University, Berlin where she will be a research fellow on “Networks: Textile Arts and Textility in a Transcultural Perspective (4th-17th Centuries)” directed by Prof. Dr. Gerhard Wolf. It is part of a project with the University of Zurich, “An Iconology of the Textile in Art and Architecture,” directed by Prof. Dr. Tristan Weddigen.

Jonathan James Tavares (MA 2007, PhD 2013) is the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice curatorial fellow at the Art Institute of Chicago where he is working on the reinstallation of the arms and armor collection and the Medieval and Renaissance galleries, which will open in 2016.

Amber Winick (MA 2013) has received a Fulbright scholarship to study in Hungary. In March, she will be moving to Budapest with her family, including beautiful daughter, Alice, born on November 15, to research Hungarian designs created for children.

Amy Sande-Friedman (MA 2006, PhD 2012), whose essay about the artist Dana Melamed appears in Dana Melamed: Duality of Matter (Von Lintel Gallery, New York 2013), has started her own art advisory practice focusing on building contemporary art collections.

Erin Eisenbarth (MPhil 2010, PhD candidate) has been awarded a research fellowship at the Mount Vernon, Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington.

Michelle Tolini Finamore (PhD 2010) has been named the Penny Vinik Curator of Fashion Arts at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where she is working on an exhibition on 1930s/40s Hollywood fashion and fine jewelry scheduled for September 2014. Her book, Hollywood Before Glamour: Fashion in American Silent Film (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), was cited by the Huffington Post as one of the best film books of 2013.

Caroline Hannah (MPhil 2009, PhD candidate) co-taught the undergraduate survey at Bard College last fall entitled Introduction to the History of Design and Decorative Arts: Baroque to the Modern Day, with Professor Tom Wolf. Student field trips included exhibitions tours with Amy Bogansky (MPhil 2013, PhD candidate), researcher for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibition Interwoven Globe: The Worldwide Textile Trade, 1500–1800, and Ron Labaco (MA 2002), curator of the Museum of Arts and Design’s Out of Hand: Materializing the Postdigital. Caroline also organized an evening of presentations by Christine Griffiths (MA 2013), Colin Fanning (MA 2013), and Yenna Chan (MPhil 2011, PhD candidate) at the Annandale campus. This spring, she is co-curating an exhibition on Henry Varnum Poor and Wharton Esherick at the Wharton Esherick Museum near Philadelphia.

Eva Labson (MA 2008), assistant manager of the Antonio Ratti Textile Center at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, entered the doctoral program at the University of Bern’s Institute for Art History in October. Her dissertation “Representations of Nature in Liturgical Textiles of the Early Modern Period” will be supervised by Prof. Dr. Birgitt Borkopp-Restle, Werner and Margaret Abegg Chair of the History of Textile Arts. This opportunity developed through her involvement with the Centre International d’Étude des Textiles Anciens (CIETA) in Lyon, where she completed the two-part technical course focusing on a method of studying the technique of historic textiles. In September, she delivered a paper at CIETA’s biennial General Assembly at the Musée des Beaux Arts de Lyon.

Sarah Archer (MA 2006) is living happily in Philadelphia, where she works as a writer and curator. She recently launched a consulting practice working with artists, galleries, and museums and published a catalog from a site-specific project with Beijing-based artists Song Dong and Yin Xiuzhen.

Daniella Ohad Smith’s (PhD 2006) article entitled “The ‘Designed’ Israeli Interior, 1960–1977: Shaping Identity” appeared in the September 2013 issue of the Journal of Interior Design. She has started a program “Collecting Design” in Tel Aviv and with Cultured magazine at the New York School of Interior Design. Her blog is daniellaondesign.com.

Lisa Skogh (MA 2006) completed her PhD at Stockholm University in October. Her dissertation, “Material Worlds: Hedwig Eleonora as Collector and Patron of the Arts,” was published by the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences’ Centre of the History of Science in their book series. In February, Lisa was named a visiting research fellow at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, where she is pursuing a postdoctoral project on the “Early Modern Consort and the Kunstkammer.” In March, she is organizing two sessions at the annual Renaissance Society of America conference in New York City on “The Varied Role of the Early Modern Amateur” with Vera Keller. In 2013, she planned a four-day interdisciplinary conference with Stockholm University and the Swedish Royal Collections. A selection of presentations will be published in an anthology co-edited with Kristoffer Neville (U.C. Riverside).

Han Vu (MA 2004 is working with Google Glass to produce an app that will deliver interpretive content for museum visitors. In collaboration with Voidstar Lab, it will be featured in the Waterweavers exhibition at the BGC Gallery this April. The app, one of the first to be implemented in the museum community, aims to enhance user experience in the gallery and looks to re-examine the implementation and use of digital devices for visitors.

Cynthia Coleman Spark’s (MA 2001) book, Russian Decorative Arts, will be published by the Antique Collectors’ Club in May. It is conceived as a guide to collecting pre-Revolutionary Russian works of art and includes chapters on glass, porcelain, Faberge, jewelry, awards and decorations, enamel, lapidary, silver, metal, lacquer, bone, and wood. Each topic is covered in an illustrated chapter introducing the techniques, specific Russian characteristics, and principal makers.

Rick Kinsel (MA 2000) was honored by the Museum of Arts and Design at their annual Visionaries! Awards in November for his ongoing work as executive director of the Vilcek Foundation.