Judaica Curator (Judah L. Magnes Museum, 2004-2009)
Elayne Grossbard
Elayne Grossbard received a Master’s degree in Art History and Certificate in Conservation from the N.Y.U. Institute of Fine Arts, as well as and a strong traditional Jewish education while growing up in Brooklyn, NY.
As Collections Manager for the Thomashefsky Project, she created a catalog of art, artifacts, and memorabilia related to the Thomashefsky family collection and the Yiddish theater. She curated invitation exhibitions of work by local Jewish artists for the San Francisco Bureau of Jewish Education-Jewish Community Library, which challenged her to consider ancient themes and ceremonial art from a contemporary viewpoint. Before her curatorial career, Elayne worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York as an objects conservator, and consulted on collection conservation for the Jewish Museum New York, The New York State Council on the Arts, the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; she was also conservator for archaeological excavations in Israel and Cyprus.
During her tenure as Judaica Curator at the Judah L. Magnes Museum (2004-2009), she researched ceremonial objects, rare books and manuscripts in the collection, and curated several exhibitions, including Sephardic Horizons (2004), The People and The Book (2005), Houses and Housings (2006), and Journeys East (2007).