James Madison's Montpelier We The People Fall 2015 | Page 12

WE THE PEOPLE

Meet Elizabeth Chew
and a few of her favorite things
Raised in Augusta, Georgia, Montpelier Vice President
for Museum Programs Elizabeth Chew gained her
passion for objects—and the ideas they represent—
through family trips to historic sites and museums in the
U.S. and Europe.
After earning progressive degrees in Art History—B.A.
at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, M.A.
at the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London,
and Ph.D. at UNC-Chapel Hill—she went on to serve in
progressively senior roles at the Smithsonian American
Art Museum, National Gallery of Art, and the Phillips
Collection in Washington, D.C. Chew then moved to
Charlottesville, where she spent 13 years as Curator at
Monticello. She counts working on the Visitor
Center at Monticello and cocurating the exhibition, Slavery
at Jefferson’s Monticello: Paradox of
Liberty, with the National Museum
of African American History
and Culture as highlights in her
career. She comes to Montpelier
from Reynolda House Museum of
American Art in Winston-Salem,
NC, the early 20th-century estate
of tobacco magnate R.J. Reynolds.
“What a site like Montpelier has
over other places is the creation
story of our nation, embedded
and integrated in every aspect of
its being: the Constitution, the
existence of slavery in the early
republic, the presidency, the role of
the First Lady. These are topics that
are relevant in every single moment
of every single day. People may not
know that if they come here they
can learn and experience and be
inspired in so many ways, but they
can, and we need to communicate
the power of this place.”
Elizabeth Chew joined James Madison’s Montpelier as
Vice President of Museum Programs in August 2015.

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