Lynn Marsden-Atlass
Lynn Marsden-Atlass has been the Executive Director of the Arthur Ross Gallery since 2008 and Curator of the University of Pennsylvania Art Collection since 2010. She has curated 32 exhibitions at the Arthur Ross Gallery, organized nine exhibitions drawn from the Penn Art Collection and partnered with faculty from the Department of the History of Art on eight Curatorial Seminar exhibitions. The Gallery’s multidisciplinary programs of artist talks, music, dance, theatre, and poetry have expanded access and inclusion, and doubled attendance. Inaugurated in 2015, the Susan T. Marx Distinguished Lecture has brought world-renowned artists, museum directors, and scholars to inspire students and the Philadelphia community.
As University Curator, Marsden-Atlass has revitalized the campus loan program, introduced onsite object-based learning, established open access to the collection, and new scholarship. The Penn Art Collection includes over 8,000 objects located in 115 different locations across campus. Marsden-Atlass is Chair of the On-Campus Art Committee and the Art Advisory Committee. In 2020 she was appointed to the Campus Iconography Group.
Previously, Ms. Marsden-Atlass served as the Senior Curator of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; Curator of American and Contemporary Art at the Chrysler Museum of Art; Associate Director and Registrar of the Colby College Museum of Art; and Director of the Consortium of Colleges Abroad in Paris, France. She was professor of 19th century French Art for the British Institute in Paris and three college programs in Paris, and adjunct professor in the Départment d’anglais at Université de Caen in 1992-93. In 2016 she was an Affiliated Fellow at the American Academy in Rome. She earned an M.A. in the History of Art from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in the History of Art from Lake Forest College. From 2010 – 2019 Marsden-Atlass served on the board of the American Association of Academic Museums and Galleries, and currently serves as an IMLS MAP Surveyor and an AAM Accreditation Reviewer.
