FAQ
Maura Reilly
Curator
Dr. Maura Reilly is the Curator of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum, the first museum exhibition space of its kind in the world. Prior to assuming this position, Reilly taught art history and women's studies at Tufts University, as well as courses at Pratt Institute, Vassar College, and at her alma mater, The Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, where she received her Ph.D. in 2000 in Modern and Contemporary Art with a concentration in feminist and queer theory. Reilly has curated, lectured, and published extensively, both nationally and internationally, and has been a regular contributor to Art in America since 1998. In 2005, in celebration of ArtTable's 25th year Anniversary, she received one of their prestigious Future Women Leadership Awards; and in 2006, she received a Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts Award from the Women's Caucus for Art. She is an active member of the National Organization for Women, International Association of Art Critics, ArtTable, and is on the National Committee of The Feminist Art Project. Most recently, Reilly co-curated, with Linda Nochlin, a major exhibition of international contemporary feminist art, titled Global Feminisms, which inaugurates the Brooklyn Museum's new Center for Feminist Art in March of 2007. Reilly is the author of a monograph on Ghada Amer (New York: Gregory R. Miller & Co., 2007).
Sarah Giovaniello
Research Assistant
Sarah Giovanniello is a writer, performer, director, film fan, and now the proud Research Assistant at the Elizabeth A. Sacker Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum. Before moving to New York to attend New York University's M.A. Program in Performance Studies, Sarah lived in Philadelphia, where she worked as Assistant Program Coordinator at the Kelly Writers House, and a studio assistant to an interdisciplinary performance artist. Sarah received her B.A. in English from Bryn Mawr College in 2003, where she wrote her thesis on the experimental fiction of early feminist writers, and performed in many theater "events" and "happenings" around campus. This past summer, Sarah lived in Los Angeles, where she fulfilled a Library Research Grant from the J. Paul Getty Research Institute for a project on women artists in the Fluxus Movement. Sarah has also interned for TDR: The Drama Review, the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, and the Vito Acconci Studio in Brooklyn. She learned almost everything she knows about feminism from her mother, her grandmothers, and Sassy Magazine.
Special Thanks
We would especially like to thank our staff and interns, past and present, for all of their dedication and hard work. The Brooklyn Museum and the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art are indebted to them for their many efforts.
These feminists include:
Emily Bates, Feminist Art Base Intern
Rebecca Bivens, Intern
Johanna Bloch, Intern, Researcher, Heritage Floor Writer
Katherine Blouse, Senior Intern, Researcher, Place Setting Writer
Amy Brandt, Exhibition Research Assistant
Gabrielle Bridgeford, Intern
Stacy Brix, Research Intern, Heritage Floor Writer
Tara Burk, Intern
Jodie Dinapoli-Algarra, Intern
Aida Eltorie, Intern
Alison Gass, Researcher, Place Setting Writer
Courtney Gerber, former Research Assistant
Bettina Riccio Henry, Research Intern, Heritage Floor Writer, Timeline Research Intern
Ariel Herrera, Picture Researcher
Pia Howell, Intern
Alana Integlia, Intern
Catherine Keyser, Intern
Sirena LaBurn, Intern
Ashley Malinosky, Research Intern, Heritage Floor Contributor
Federica Mascagni, Intern
Kimberly Masiello, Intern
Renee McGarry, Senior Intern, Researcher, Place Setting Writer
Melissa Messina, Research Assistant
Jennifer Musawwir, Research Intern, Heritage Floor Writer
Emily Newman, Research Intern, Heritage Floor Writer
Nora Niedzielski-Eichner, Senior Intern, Researcher
Lauren Nicole Nixon, Intern
Keri Oldham, Intern
Angela Oh, Intern
Lauren Palmor, Intern
Adina Polen, Intern
Ramya Ravisankar, Intern, Image Researcher
H. Alexander Rich, Researcher, Place Setting Writer
Stephen Rodgers, Intern
Jillian Russo, Timeline Research Intern
Peggy Moorhead Seas, Research Intern, Heritage Floor Writer
Lisa Silberstein, Intern
Emily Silet, Researcher, Place Setting Writer
Elizabeth Simpson, Intern, Image Researcher
Shawnta Smith, Intern
Megan Threlkeld, Intern
Annemarie Voss, Intern
Page Whitmore, Intern
Jill Wickenheiser, Intern
Misha Rene Wyllie, Intern
Acknowledgements
We would also like to acknowledge the following initial contributors to The Dinner Party Database for their invaluable help and expertise:
John Aberth, Visiting Assistant Professor of History at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, for Petronilla de Meath's place setting entry
Christina Bell, Director of the Writing Center at Franklin College, Switzerland, and freelance writer, for Virginia Woolf's place setting entry
Edward Bleiberg, Curator, Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Middle Eastern Art, Brooklyn Museum, for Hatshepsut's place setting entry
Michael Chagnon, Research Assistant for Islamic Art and Asian Art, Brooklyn Museum, for Kali's place setting entry
Madeleine Cody, Research Associate, Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Middle Eastern Art, Brooklyn Museum, for Ishtar's and the Snake Goddess's place setting entries
Richard Fazzini, Curator Emeritus, Egyptian, Classical, and Middle Eastern Art, Brooklyn Museum, for input on the Nofret Heritage Floor entry
Karyn Hinkle, Library Associate, Libraries and Archives, Brooklyn Museum, for the place setting bibliographies
Philomena Mariani, Heritage Floor Editor, Researcher, and Writer
Amy G. Poster, Lisa and Bernard Selz Curator of Asian Art, Emerita, Brooklyn Museum, for Kali's place setting entry
Nancy Rosoff, Andrew W. Mellon Curator, Arts of the Americas, Brooklyn Museum, for Sacajawea's place setting entry and for input on the related Heritage Floor names
Susan Kennedy Zeller, Assistant Curator, Arts of the Americas, Brooklyn Museum, for Sacajawea's place setting entry and for input on the related Heritage Floor names
As well as:
The Brooklyn Museum Conservation Department, especially Toni Owen; Digital Lab staff, especially Deb Wythe; Design staff, especially Tomoko Nakano; Editorial staff, especially Jessica Lott; Education Division; Information Systems department, especially Jennifer Borkowski; Nicole Caruth, Interpretive Materials Manager; Philomena Mariani, Heritage Floor editor and contributor; Mayumi Nishida, Judy Chicago's Studio Assistant; Donald Woodman, photography; and, of course, Judy Chicago
Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum