Staff Profile

Martha Tedeschi assumed the directorship at the Harvard Art Museums in July 2016. Prior to her arrival at Harvard, she served as deputy director for art and research at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she also enjoyed a long tenure as curator in the Department of Prints and Drawings.

A specialist in 19th-century British and American art, Tedeschi has written in particular depth about James McNeill Whistler, Winslow Homer, and John Marin and has frequently collaborated with conservators and conservation scientists. Her books include The Lithographs of James McNeill Whistler (general editor and co-author with Nesta Spink; 2 vols., The Art Institute of Chicago, 1998); Watercolors by Winslow Homer: The Color of Light (with Kristi Dahm; The Art Institute of Chicago, 2008); and John Marin’s Watercolors: A Medium for Modernism (with Kristi Dahm; The Art Institute of Chicago, 2011). She has published extensively and organized numerous exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago; her most recent exhibition was Undressed: The Fashion of Privacy. Tedeschi is a member of the Association of Art Museum Directors. She was a 2012 Fellow at the Center for Curatorial Leadership and has served as president of the Print Council of America (2009–13) and on the board of the Association of Art Museum Curators (2015–16).