Maria Falvo, President & CEO, American Savings Foundation

Maria Falvo is president & CEO of the American Savings Foundation, an independent charitable foundation serving 64 towns in Central Connecticut, including the cities of New Britain and Waterbury.  The Foundation is dedicated to strengthening the community by supporting education, human services, and the arts, with a special emphasis on the needs of children, youth and families. Ms. Falvo holds a bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University, a master’s degree in communications from CCSU, and an MBA in finance from the UCONN School of Business.  Ms. Falvo serves on the board of directors of the National Scholarship Providers Association.

Michelle Hargrave, Deputy Director, New Britain Museum of American Art; Moderator

Michelle Hargrave is Deputy Director of the New Britain Museum of American Art where she helps to lead the programming, fundraising, outreach, and operations of the Museum. She formerly served as the Curator and China Initiative Project Director at The American Federation of Arts in New York. In this role, she worked with internationally renowned collections, institutions, and curators to develop and organize traveling art exhibitions at multiple domestic and international venues and spearheaded AFA’s China Initiative. Prior to joining the AFA in 2011, she held the position of Associate Curator at the Bard Graduate Center in New York City. 

Cybele Maylone, Executive Director, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum

Cybele Maylone joined The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in September of 2018 as the Executive Director. Prior to joining the Museum she was the Executive Director of UrbanGlass, an organization that supports artists creating with glass, in New York City. She has also held positions at apexart and the New Museum of Contemporary Art and recently moved to Ridgefield, CT with her husband and two daughters. 

Frank Mitchell, Executive Director, The Amistad Center for Art & Culture

Frank Mitchell, Executive Director of The Amistad Center for Art & Culture, specializes in African American historical and visual culture. He earned his PhD from the University of Michigan’s American Culture Program, worked with The Studio Museum in Harlem, the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Museum, the Schomburg Center, Connecticut Audubon Birdcraft Museum, the Yale Peabody Museum, and has held teaching or administrative positions at the University of Connecticut, Trinity College, Franklin & Marshall College, and Yale University. His exhibitions include 40 Acres: The Promise of a Black Pastoral, High Water Marks: Art & ReNEWal after Katrina, and Soulfood: African American Cooking and Creativity. 

Jennifer Reynolds-Kaye, Curator of Education and Academic Outreach, Yale Center for British Art

Jennifer Reynolds-Kaye is the Curator of Education and Academic Outreach at the Yale Center for British Art. In this role, she develops interdisciplinary approaches for engaging Yale faculty and students with the Center’s collections. Her latest research investigates the connections between pre-Columbian art and Britain in the 19th and 20th centuries. She curated the exhibition, “Small-Great Objects: Anni and Josef Albers in the Americas” at the Yale University Art Gallery. She received her PhD in Art History from the University of Southern California, and specializes in the afterlife of pre-Columbian art in modern and contemporary art. 

Elizabeth Shapiro, Interim Director of Culture Director of Operations, Preservation and Museums, Connecticut State Department of Economic & Community Development, Offices of Culture and Tourism

Elizabeth Shapiro has over thirty years of experience in museums of all sizes, shapes and areas of concentration. A graduate of Haverford College (BA) and the Cooperstown Graduate Program in History Museum Studies (MA), Liz has worked as Curator of the Galleries at Babson College, Director of the Sharon (CT) Historical Society, Executive Director of the Connecticut League of History Organizations, and currently as Interim Director of Culture and Director of Operations for Museums and Historic Preservation for the State of Connecticut. In addition to oversight of the full panoply of programs offered by the Connecticut Office of the Arts and the State Historic Preservation Office, she is privileged to develop new strategic directions for the Prudence Crandall Museum, Old New-Gate Prison & Copper Mine, the Eric Sloane Museum and the Henry Whitfield State Museum. Liz has served as a private consultant and a Peer Advisor for the state, working with institutions as diverse as the Torrington Symphony Orchestra, the New Canaan Preservation Alliance and the Northwest Arts Council. She is the editor of several books including Echoes of Iron in Connecticut’s Northwest Corner and Seldom Told Tales of Sharon, Volumes 1-3. Liz believes passionately that our human stories, our very humanity, lies within the overlapping spheres of history, art and place. She is committed to engaging in meaningful, action-oriented public-private partnerships that bring relevance, access and inclusion to this intersectionality.

AAMC Foundation’s Regional Programming In-Conversation Series 

AAMC Foundation's regional programming series, In-Conversation, looks at important issues facing our museum and art organization community through a curatorial lens. By bringing this series forward, and opening the program to all, the Foundation continues to advance advocacy and inclusion within the curatorial profession. In hosting these programs in central regional areas, we are opening a dialogue within these communities and making connections across institutions. 

The evening series is organized and supported by the AAMC Foundation. The open discussion format welcomes AAMC leadership, non-profit leaders, and voices from local communities to have an engaging dialogue on a focused subject. Following the discussion, AAMC welcomes the audience and speakers to continue the conversation at a brief reception. Past events have included: Multiple Voices to Build Inclusion, held in Seattle; Behind the Career Curtain, held in Chicago; Spark: Igniting Curiosity, the Curator's Impact, held in Toronto, Art and Social Justice, held in Los Angeles, Addressing Implicit Bias in Museums, held in Washington, D.C.; Preventing Looting: What Curators & All Museum Staff Can Do held in NYC, and Museum Directors on the Curatorial Role, held in Boston.

AAMC & AAMC Foundation

Founded in 2001, and now including over 1,300 members from over 500 institutions around the globe, we are a strong leader for curators in non-profit settings. The mission of the Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC) is to support and promote the work of visual art curators in the non-profit sector by creating opportunities for networking, collaboration, professional development, and advancement. In support of these aims, the AAMC Foundation seeks to heighten public understanding of the curator's non-profit role through programs, discussions, and opportunities open to the public and our members. By providing a dynamic forum in which to share ideas and encourage professional development, the Association of Art Museum Curators continues to grow, increasing its visibility and importance to the larger arts community.  At the heart of all we do is our goal to celebrate, advance, and advocate for the non-profit curator. Our Strategic Plan’s key facets are diversity and advocacy, which now have devoted Task Forces within our organization, with the goals of furthering opportunities for all curators through creating inclusive programming, seeking to define and expand the definition of curator, promoting the curatorial role within our communities, and supporting the highest standards of curatorial ethics and professional behavior.