Clark Art Institute appoints Alexis Goodin as decorative arts curator | Bizbrief

WILLIAMSTOWN — The Clark Art Institute has appointed longtime staff member Alexis Goodin as curator of decorative arts.

“Alexis is an integral part of the Clark’s curatorial team, and she has brought extraordinary rigor, insight, and care to the study and presentation of our decorative arts collections,” said Esther Bell, deputy director and Robert and Martha Berman Lipp chief curator of the Clark. “Her deep institutional knowledge and scholarly excellence make her uniquely suited to steward this area of our collection.”

Having served for over more than two decades at the Clark, Goodin has played a vital role in shaping the interpretation, presentation and scholarship of the Clark’s decorative arts collections. Her work in this field began in 2000, when she served as co-curator of “A Fresh and Large Assortment: American Silver from the Burrows Collection.”

Since that time, she worked closely with Kathleen Morris, the Clark’s former Sylvia and Leonard Marx director of collections and exhibitions, curator of decorative arts, on expansive reviews of the Clark’s porcelain, glass and silver holdings, contributing to both scholarly research and public-facing interpretation, including the 2017 openings of the Lauzon Glass Study Gallery and the Henry Morris and Elizabeth H. Burrows Gallery of American Decorative Arts. The Burrows Gallery houses the Clark’s collection of early American paintings and furniture in addition to its Burrows collection of American silver.

Goodin was the co-curator of “Orchestrating Elegance: Alma-Tadema and Design” (2017), an exhibition that explored the intersections of fine and decorative arts in the late 19th century. She was also a key member of the team that reinterpreted objects and developed new interpretive labels for the Burrows Gallery of American Decorative Arts, installed in fall 2022, intended to deepen visitor engagement with the collection.

In addition to her work with decorative arts, Goodin’s curatorial practice reflects a sustained interest in women artists and social history. She curated the Clark’s summer 2025 exhibition, “A Room of Her Own: Women Artist-Activists in Britain, 1875–1945,” which examined the artistic production and cultural impact of women working across media during a period of profound social and political change.

Goodin holds a master’s degree from the Williams College/Clark Graduate Program in the History of Art and a Ph.D. in art history from Brown University, writing her dissertation on the representation of ancient Egypt at the Sydenham Crystal Palace in South London.

“I am deeply honored to assume the role of safeguarding, displaying, and growing the Clark’s spectacular collection of decorative arts,” Goodin said. “I have worked closely with these collections for years, and I look forward to highlighting the richness of the Clark’s holdings of silver, porcelain, glass, furniture, and other works in new and relevant ways, making them accessible to our publics.”

As curator of decorative arts, Goodin will continue to advance research, steward the collections, and develop exhibitions centered on the Clark’s collection of decorative arts.