The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art has appointed Dr. Regina Palm to fill the new role of Curator of American Painting. The Morse Museum, world-renowned for its collection of works by Louis Comfort Tiffany, created the post to further its mission to advance knowledge and appreciation of the Museum’s collection. Dr. Palm was chosen after a nationwide search and her appointment is effective immediately, working from home electronically.

Dr. Palm comes to the Morse Museum in Winter Park, Florida, from San Diego, California, where she had been the Associate Curator of American Art at the San Diego Museum of Art. Formerly, Dr. Palm held curatorial positions at the Kimbell Art Museum, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, and Cincinnati Art Museum. Dr. Palm earned her PhD in art history from the University of London.

During her time at the San Diego Museum of Art, Dr. Palm originated exhibitions including Questions of Identity, Abstract Revolution: Women Who Empowered a Movement, Women of the Southwest as well as several others from the San Diego Museum of Art’s permanent collection. Her previous work includes the thorough research of the Kimbell Art Museum’s exhibition The Collection of Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass and the subsequent writing and compiling of the exhibition’s catalogue and all of the labels for its thirty-seven works of art.

“I am very pleased that Regina is joining the Morse staff,” said Morse Museum Director Dr. Laurence J. Ruggiero. “She brings experience, substantial accomplishment, and sensitive intelligence to our painting collection. Hugh McKean was careful to tell me from the very beginning, ‘We are not just a Tiffany Museum.’ We are now at the point where we can, with Regina’s help, give more attention to our paintings, prints, and drawings while our Curator and Collection Manager Jennifer Thalheimer can dedicate even more time to our Tiffany and decorative arts collections.”

“Our work on the decorative arts collection will only be enhanced by Regina’s focus on our paintings and drawings. She will certainly enhance our perspective in future exhibitions,” said Thalheimer, the Morse Museum’s Curator and Collection Manager for more than twenty years. “Having someone committed directly to telling the stories of paintings, watercolors, prints, and etchings along Tiffany’s continuum will enrich the collection as a whole immeasurably.”

Of her appointment, Dr. Palm said: “The rare opportunity to join the Morse team was something that I could not pass up. The Museum’s commitment to serving the local community while at the same time seeking to engage its national and international visitors is a commitment that is near and dear to my own heart as a curator. The Morse is a jewel box of a museum, from its unparalleled collection of works by Louis Comfort Tiffany to its exceptional paintings and works on paper. I am thrilled to be a part of the Morse’s continued growth and to have the opportunity to delve into the Museum’s exceptional collection.”

The Morse Museum is home to the world’s most comprehensive collection of works by American designer and artist Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848–1933), including the chapel interior he designed for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago and art and architectural objects from Tiffany’s celebrated Long Island home, Laurelton Hall. The Museum's holdings also include American art pottery, late 19th- and early 20th-century American paintings, graphics, and decorative art.

The Museum is owned and operated by the Charles Hosmer Morse Foundation and receives additional support from the Elizabeth Morse Genius Foundation. It receives no public funds.

For more information about the Morse, please visit morsemuseum.org.