Stephen Harrison, Curator of Decorative Art and Design
Stephen Harrison, curator of Decorative Art & Design at the Cleveland Museum of Art, earned a B.A. in British Studies from the University of Virginia (1987), where he was a Jefferson Scholar; a M.A. in historic preservation from the University of Pennsylvania (1992); and a M.A. in early American culture from the prestigious Winterthur Program at the University of Delaware (1997). He also received a diploma from the Attingham Summer School in England (1997).
Harrison joined the Cleveland Museum of Art in 2005 at the beginning of its renovation and expansion project as Curator of Decorative Art & Design. He organized and carried out the exhibition, Design for the Modern World: The Arts and Crafts Movement in Europe and America, 1880-1920. Harrison is currently working on his newest exhibition to open in October 2008, Artistic Luxury: Fabergé, Tiffany, Lalique. This exhibition marks the first comparative study of three of the greatest jewelry and luxury goods designers at the turn of the 20th century: Peter Carl Fabergé, Louis Comfort Tiffany, and René Lalique. Their worlds collided in a rivalry of creative exuberance. The competition found its stage at the 1900 World's Fair in Paris. Each of the artists was linked by a common purpose: to provide the most luxurious and artistic creations to their clientele. The most elaborate of their designs for the Paris World's Fair will be reunited for the first time in a gallery recreating the ambience of this opulent exhibition.
Before CMA, Harrison worked at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia as the Curator of Decorative Arts. Harrison joined the High in February 2002. While there, he gained national reputation for overseeing the complete reinstallation of the High’s permanent collection of American and European decorative arts, including the renowned Virginia Carroll Crawford Collection. Harrison has presented exhibitions of Dutch furniture, the industrial designs of architect Richard Meier, and organized a collaboration between the High and the Louvre museum in Paris of 18th-century French decorative arts.
Before joining High, Harrison was assistant curator (1996-2000) and associate curator of Decorative Arts (2000-2002) at the Dallas Museum of Art and curator of Decorative Arts and Technology at the Louisiana State Museum (1994-1996).
Harrison is well published in his field. His work includes: China and Glass in America, 1880-1980: From Tabletop to TV Tray (Abrams, 1980); “Helene Kroller-Muller and the Furniture of H. P. Berlage,” in Van Gogh to Mondrian: Modern Art from the Droller-Muller Museum (High Museum of Art, 2004); and “Painted Furniture at the Dallas Museum of Art,” in the1998 Tri Delta Charity Antiques Show Catalog. Harrison is also a regular contributor to Better Homes and Gardens magazine and lectures frequently on the subject of 19th- and 20th-century decorative arts and interiors.