Dr. Lisa Fischman, Ruth Gordon Shapiro Director of the Davis Museum at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, has promoted Claire Whitner to Assistant Director of Curatorial Affairs and Senior Curator of Collections.

In her new position, Whitner will work with Fischman to oversee all curatorial matters at the Museum, define the vision and direction for the collections, edit publications, and create programs that draw on and expand the missions of the institution. She will supervise the curatorial team, coordinating closely with other Davis departments as well as with faculty, students, and staff on the Wellesley College campus. Whitner will assume her new role on May 1, 2016.

“Claire’s work in the course of her short time at the Davis has already resulted in an award-winning publication and two highly-lauded exhibitions, and her promotion is extremely well-deserved,” said Lisa Fischman. “Her proven commitment to excellence in scholarship, her professional network and collegial standing, and her demonstrated adherence to the highest museum standards will help us continue to enhance our diverse collections and to enrich our programming.”

During her time at the Davis Museum as Associate Curator, Whitner has curated two major exhibitions, New View: 2014 Faculty Exhibition, for which the accompanying catalogue won a design award from the New England Museum Association, and The Krieg Cycle: Käthe Kollwitz and World War I.  She recently edited a volume of new scholarship on Kollwitz, Käthe Kollwitz and the Women of War: Femininity, Identity, and Art in World Wars I and II undertaken in collaboration with the Smith College Museum of Art and distributed by Yale University Press.

Whitner joined the Davis Museum in 2014 from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), where she garnered vast expertise in Northern Old Masters as a Curatorial Research Fellow in European Paintings. Prior to her tenure at the MFA, Whitner was a Curatorial Assistant at the Skirball Cultural Center, and a Research Assistant at the J. Paul Getty Museum. Whitner earned a Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) in German Language and Literature from the University of California, and a Bachelor's degree in English Literature and German from The Johns Hopkins University. Whitner’s postgraduate dissertation focused on the emergence of modernist poster design in Berlin at the turn of the century.