Donna Hassler was recently appointed as the new Director of Chesterwood, a National Trust Historic Site in Stockbridge, Massachusetts and will begin on August 1.
Donna brings to Chesterwood and the National Trust a strong background in both historic administration and art history. For the past three years Donna served as a consultant to the art and museum world in New York. Her specialties included collections management, exhibition planning and design, and fundraising. Before starting her own business, she served 8 years as Executive Director at the Rensselaer County Historical Society and Hart-Cluett House in Troy, New York. She has also served as Curator for the Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, New York, and in a variety of research and curatorial positions at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
In 2005 Donna was the Guest Curator for the annual Contemporary Sculpture Show at Chesterwood and she has been serving as an advisor to the National Trust’s Historic Artists Homes and Studios Program, which is now housed at Chesterwood.
Donna holds Masters degrees in the History of Art from New York University and the City University of New York, as well as a BA in the History of Art from The George Washington University here in DC.
Chesterwood is the home and studio of reknowned American sculptor Daniel Chester French. French was the sculptor of the seated Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial, the Minuteman at Lexington, Massachusetts, the beautiful fountain in Dupont Circle, and many other familiar public monuments. His Chesterwood studio, nestled in the Berkshire Mountains, provided a retreat from New York’s urban life for more than thirty years. Models, studies, and full-size sculptures of his famous works are displayed in the studio, museum gallery, summer home and gardens.
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