ARG director settling in

In her professional career, Lynn Marsden-Atlass has worked as a museum educator, an associate director of a college museum, an art historian and a curator.

In her new job as director of the Arthur Ross Gallery, Marsden-Atlass will use these years of experience and her keen eye to shape, plan and execute exhibits at Penn’s official art gallery.

“I loved the idea of working within the University and ... love the idea of collaboration both within the University and within the greater Philadelphia community,” says Marsden-Atlass, who started at Penn in late February. “I think Dilys [Winegrad, former ARG director] and Arthur Ross have created a gallery that is about global art. In that sense, it engages many different groups at individual times. We’re expanding our minds and our horizons and that’s what art, to me, does.”

Marsden-Atlass comes to Penn from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where she worked for five years as senior curator. During her tenure there, she curated shows from artists Alex Katz, Cecilia Beaux and Robert Motherwell, as well as the enormously successful 2005 show, “In Private Hands,” which celebrated PAFA’s 200th anniversary.

At Arthur Ross, Marsden-Atlass is especially excited about two upcoming shows: “Louis Kahn: Furniture and Interiors,” a Halpern-Rogath Curitorial Seminar that will run in February and March of next year, and an exhibition of School of Design Professor John Moore’s industrial landscapes, “Thirteen Miles from Paradise,” which will run from April 2009 to mid-June. She also encourages audiences to peruse the current show, “Remembered Light,” on display through July 5.

In the future, Marsden-Atlass hopes to increase the number of collaborations between the Gallery, Penn and the greater Philadelphia community and engage with Penn students from all schools. “[The Gallery has] always had terrific exhibitions, and I would just like to have more people enjoy it and be involved in it.”

Originally published June 12, 2008.