African Art in The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing Fellows

Karri Vaughn is an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. She recently received her Master of Arts in textile conservation from the Fashion Institute of Technology. She has a broad range of interests within the field of fashion and textile studies and the focus of her fellowship is on non-Western mount making and conservation treatments. She previously interned at the Saint Louis Art Museum and the Textile Conservation Laboratory of the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine.

Fernanda is the Sylvan C. Coleman and Pam Coleman Memorial Fund Fellow for the arts of sub-Saharan Africa. She was awarded a fellowship to study the mythical and historical imagery of the feminine in Yoruba and Edo artworks, and to explore new aesthetic languages for the reevaluation of Black lives and transnational feminism. She was awarded a fellowship to study the mythical and historical imagery of the feminine in Yoruba and Edo artworks, and to explore new aesthetic languages for the reevaluation of Black lives and transnational feminism.

Elaine is the Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow for the arts of sub-Saharan Africa (2020–2022). She is researching the collection and working with outside contributors to bring in a diversity of voices to comment on works to be displayed. She received her PhD in Culture and Performance (with a focus on Central African arts and Museum Studies) from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2020. She was awarded an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellowship to assist with a comprehensive reassessment of The Met collection of African arts spanning from 500 B.C. to the present.

Kristal is the Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Conservation (2020–2022). She is exploring the use of modular cleaning systems with rigid hydrogels to mitigate stains and environmental contaminants present on a man’s wrapper from the Bondoukou Region of Côte d’Ivoire and is also participating in the de-installation of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing in preparation for its renovation. She received her MA from the Bern University of Applied Sciences and the Abegg-Stiftung in 2019. She was awarded an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Conservation Fellowship to gain experience in the study and treatment of textiles from Africa, Oceania, and the Americas in the context of a museum conservation department.

Elaine Sullivan was awarded an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellowship to assist with a comprehensive reassessment of The Met collection of African arts spanning from 500 B.C. to the present.

Kristal Hale was awarded an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Conservation Fellowship to gain experience in the study and treatment of textiles from Africa, Oceania, and the Americas in the context of a museum conservation department.

John Peffer was awarded a Sylvan C. Coleman and Pam Coleman Memorial Fund Fellowship to complete a book exploring how photographs in private homes in South Africa’s black townships helped people survive violence and political marginalization

Giulia Paoletti was awarded an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellowship to research and assist with the development and preparation for a planned reinstallation and renovation of the African art galleries.

James Green was awarded The Sylvan C. Coleman and Pam Coleman Memorial Fund Fellowship to research masterpieces by the Teke peoples of West Central Africa housed in The Met and other American institutions.

Giulia Paoletti was awarded an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellowship to research and assist with the development and preparation for a planned reinstallation and renovation of the African art galleries

Joshua Cohen was awarded a Jane and Morgan Whitney Fellowship to complete a book that tracks modernist appropriations of African sculpture by European and African artists between 1905 and 1980.

Kristen Windmuller-Luna was awarded a Sylvan C. Coleman and Pam Coleman Memorial Fund Fellowship to conduct research for her dissertation, which examines the influence of Ethiopian Orthodoxy on the visual culture of the Jesuit Ethiopian mission (1557–1632).

Jessica Walthew was awarded an Andrew W. Mellon Conservation Fellowship to research the intersection of the conservation of textiles and objects.

Kate Holohan was awarded an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship to develop one of her dissertation chapters, examining in depth the Spanish Habsburgs’ collections of Latin American art.