Museum Talks | Washington, DC #13 Glencairn Museum

Villa Albertine DC is honored to host Brian Henderson, Director of Glencairn Museum, Sasha Suda, George D. Widener Director and CEO, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Jack Hinton, Henry P. McIlhenny Curator of European Decorative Arts and Sculpture, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Michael W. Cothren, Consultative Curator of Medieval Stained Glass, Glencairn Museum, to present the collection, particularly its precious stained glass, and to discuss the collaboration on the exhibition Medieval Treasures from the Glencairn Museum, which is on view at the PMA through October 2023. This event will take place virtually on April 13th at 6:00 pm.

This conversation will be moderated by Faya Causey, former Head of academic programs at the NGA, and followed by a Q&A session with the audience. 

Participating panelists: 

- Brian Henderson, Director of Glencairn Museum

Brian Henderson has served as the director of Glencairn Museum since 2013, where he has helped refine and strengthen the museum’s mission to interpret art and artifacts as expressions of religious belief and practice, with the goal of inspiring reflection, building understanding, and fostering empathy. Previously, he served as assistant professor of history (1993-2013) and dean of students at Bryn Athyn College (2001-2008; 2010-2011), where he taught medieval and American history. As an instructor, Brian made regular use of Glencairn and the architectural art in the collection as an extension of his classroom. In both phases of his career, Brian has been interested in the impact of religion and faith on societal values and structure, and on individual human choice. 

– Sasha Suda, George D. Widener Director and CEO of the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Sasha Suda was appointed in June 2022 and began her tenure in September. She brings new generation leadership to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and believes that the visual arts have the power to connect the past to the present and that they can help us to forge a more inspiring, creative, and equitable future.

– Jack Hinton, Curator of European Decorative Arts and Sculpture at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. 

Jack Hinton is the Henry P. McIlhenny Curator of European Decorative Arts and Sculpture at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. A specialist in Renaissance decorative arts, his responsibilities in the Department of European Decorative Arts & Sculpture range from medieval art and architecture to the early modern period. Jack’s recent projects include exhibitions of Medieval Treasures from the Glencairn Museum and of works by the contemporary designers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, and various publications, including Renaissance Treasures from the Edmond Foulc Collection, about the medieval and Renaissance masterpieces acquired from Foulc’s heirs by the museum in 1930.

- Michael W. Cothren, Consultative Curator of Medieval Stained Glass at the Glencairn Museum

Michael W. Cothren (Ph.D, Columbia University, 1980) is Scheuer Family Professor Emeritus of Humanities at Swarthmore College, where he taught art history from 1978-2017. Since 1994, he has been Consultative Curator of Medieval Stained Glass at the Glencairn Museum. The extraordinary works in this collection had already been the center of his research and publication since the mid 1970s. He has also published a book on the stained glass windows of the Cathedral of Beauvais (Picturing the Celestial City, Princeton University Press, 2006), as well as numerous articles on the windows of the Abbey Church of Saint-Denis and the Belles-Verrières of the Cathedral of Rouen. Since 2007 he has been the principal author of Art History, a widely used text book for introductory art history survey courses, originally written by Marilyn Stokstad in the late 20th century. Currently, he is writing a catalogue of the medieval stained glass at Glencairn as part of the International Corpus Vitrearum project.

Glencairn Museum

Glencairn, built between 1928 and 1939 in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, was once the home of Raymond and Mildred (Glenn) Pitcairn and their children. The building now serves as a museum of religious art and history. Collections include ancient Egyptian, ancient Greek and Roman, medieval Christian, Islamic, Asian, and American Indian art. The mission of Glencairn Museum is to engage a diverse audience with the common human endeavor to find higher meaning and purpose in life. A particular area of focus is the universal spirituality expressed in religious beliefs and practices around the world—past and present—through the interpretation of art, artifacts, and other cultural expressions of faith. 

Philadelphia Museum of Art 

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is one of the country’s oldest public art museums. Their main building is home to one of the most comprehensive collections in the country, and features some of the greatest gatherings of American, Asian, and European art in the world. It contains the world’s largest Marcel Duchamp collection as well as superb Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, including important works by Monet, Renoir, Degas, Cézanne, and Van Gogh.