Virginia Helen McCord Mecklenburg (born November 11, 1946) is an American art historian and curator. She was a curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum for 45 years, from 1979 to 2024.
Early life and education Mecklenburg received two English degrees from the University of Texas at Austin: a Bachelor of Arts in 1968 and a Master of Arts in 1970. Her master's thesis was titled "An Analysis of Role Playing as a Method of Teaching English to the Disadvantaged Learner." Mecklenburg then continued on to the University of Maryland to earn a Ph.D. in art history in 1983. Her doctoral dissertation "American Aesthetic Theory, 1908-1917: Issues in Conservative and Avant-Garde Thought" was supervised by Professor Elizabeth Johns.
Curatorial career Mecklenburg became a curator of painting and sculpture at the National Museum of American Art, later the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM), in 1979. A scholar of American art, Mecklenburg has written publications on such artists as George Bellows, Richard Estes, William Glackens, Edward Hopper, Robert Indiana, Georgia O'Keeffe, John Sloan, and Robert Vickrey. Exhibitions organized or co-organized by Mecklenburg include "The Patricia and Phillip Frost Collection: American Abstraction 1930-1945" (1989);Jo Ann Lewis, Abstractionists, Ignored No More; Frost Collection at American Art, Washington Post (September 18, 1989). "Edward Hopper: The Watercolors" (1999);Menachem Wecker, Those who say Edward Hopper is the artist of social distancing may be wrong, Washington Post Magazine (April 27, 2020). "Earl Cunningham's America" (2008),Karen Rosenberg, , New York Times (April 4, 2008). "Telling Stories: Norman Rockwell From the Collections of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg" (2010),Deborah Solomon, America, Illustrated, New York Times (July 1, 2010). "African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era and Beyond" (2012);Michael O'Sullivan, Sam Gilliam, abstract artist who went beyond the frame, dies at 88, Washington Post (June 27, 2022). "Richard Estes' Realism" (2014);Here Are the Nominees for the 2014 AICA Awards, ARTnews (February 27, 2015). and "Subversive, Skilled, Sublime: Fiber Art by Women" (2024).New exhibition celebrates women artists who revolutionized fiber as a powerful medium for contemporary art, Art Daily (May 2024).
At SAAM, Mecklenburg rose from associate curatorConnie Green, Reliving Days Past Through the Elderhostel Program, Washington Post (July 22, 1981).Vivien Raynor, A 'Scandalous' Show Returns, Washington Post (April 15, 1984). to chief curator.Kriston Capps, Smithsonian removed American Art Museum director after staff complaints, Washington Post (November 18, 2024). Stephanie Stebich, who became SAAM director in 2017, effectively demoted Mecklenburg to "senior curator" in 2019; Stebich was subsequently removed from the director position by Smithsonian Institution management in mid-2024, after years of declining staff morale and complaints about workplace environment.
Mecklenburg retired from SAAM in April 2024.
See also List of University of Maryland, College Park people List of University of Texas at Austin alumni
References
External links Smithsonian profile