Alisa Chiles, Ph.D, The Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Decorative Arts
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia
Dr. Alisa Chiles is the Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Decorative Arts, 1890-Present at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) in Richmond, VA. She oversees a collection of more than 3,100 decorative arts objects created after 1890, including the VMFA’s renowned holdings of Art Nouveau and Art Deco, considered the finest outside of France, as well as the museum’s extensive Fabergé collection, the most significant outside of Russia. An expert in the decorative arts of the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries, she received her B.A. in Art History from Stanford University, her M.A. in Art History from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University, and her Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Chiles joined VMFA in 2025 from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where she served as Assistant Curator of European Decorative Arts and Sculpture, overseeing a large collection of objects from the 18th century to present day. In Philadelphia, she played a vital role in the reinstallation of the museum’s 19 th -century galleries and worked on projects that recontextualized European decorative arts through a global lens. She previously worked in the European Sculpture and Decorative Arts department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Wine and hors d’oeuvres
The Gladly, 2201 E Camelback Rd, Phoenix