Emily Zilber
CFEVA Artistic Advisor
Director of Curatorial Affairs and Strategic Partnerships
Wharton Esherick Museum
Emily Zilber's work directly supports contemporary art, artists, and thinkers, especially those whose practices intersect with craft and design. She is the Director of Curatorial Affairs and Strategic Partnerships at the Wharton Esherick Museum, where she facilitates conversations between contemporary artists and Esherick's legacy. Zilber also maintains an independent consulting and artist coaching practice, and is adjunct faculty and student mentor at Tyler School of Art and Architecture. As a guest curator at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum from 2020-2021, Zilber organized the invitational exhibition Forces of Nature and its accompanying catalog.
Zilber spent almost a decade as the first Wornick Curator of Contemporary Decorative Arts at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where she built an integrated curatorial program for craft and design within the museum's contemporary art department; before that, she held curatorial positions at Cranbrook Academy of Art and Art Museum. She has spoken internationally on topics related to contemporary art and culture, arts education, and professional practice for artists, scholars, and culture workers. She also serves regularly as a reviewer and guest critic for educational and arts organizations both locally and nationally, including the University of the Arts, Moore College of Art and Design, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Rhode Island School of Design, Virginia Commonwealth University, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Penland School of Crafts, and the SMFA@Tufts
Zilber holds a BA in Art History from the University of Chicago and an MA in the History of Decorative Arts and Design from the Bard Graduate Center. She serves on the Boards of the Center for Craft in Asheville, North Carolina, CraftNOW Philadelphia, and on Collections Committee of the Center for Art in Wood.