Interim Curator of Education
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Michelle Grohe is the Interim Curator of Education at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, where she strategizes, plans, and executes audience research and evaluation that helps the Gardner understand its visitors, reach, and impact. Michelle also project manages the Gardner’s interdepartmental Visitor Experience and Digital Pilot teams, focusing on establishing and maintaining a holistic and integrated approach to our digital, human and physical offer, especially for first time visitors.
Michelle began at the Gardner as Director of School & Teacher Programs, managing the longstanding School Partnership Program and its related Thinking Through Art research project and symposium, as well as several research initiatives around the museum's use of Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) methodology, including longitudinal studies with elementary and high school students, and teachers. As Assistant Curator of Education & School Programs beginning in 2015, she helped redesign the museum’s K-12 School Partnership Program into Thinking Through Art, an intensive professional development program for Boston public teachers that enables the Gardner to reach more students from throughout the city.
Prior to the Gardner, Michelle has also worked at the Montclair Art Museum in New Jersey, and Addison Gallery of American Art at Philips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, focusing on teaching and K-12 programming.
Nationally, she serves on the board of the National Art Education Association (NAEA) as the Museum Education Division Director through 2019. She also serves as a core team member on the national field trip research study, Impact of Art Museum Programs on K–12 Students, a collaborative project between NAEA and the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD). Michelle has an MA in Art + Design Education from Rhode Island School of Design and a BFA in Studio Art from Millikin University.
Sunday, May 6
1:00 PM – 2:15 PM