Jessica Nicoll

Jessica F. Nicoll is an American museum director and curator and an authority on American art and culture. She serves as Director and Louise Ines Doyle '34 Chief Curator of the Smith College Museum of Art. She was previously the Chief Curator and Curator of American Art of the Portland Museum of Art.

Education In 1979, Nicoll attended Smith College, from where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Art History and American Studies in 1983. In 1986, Nicoll received her Master of Arts degree in Early American Culture and a certificate in Museum Studies from the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture at the University of Delaware.

Career in the arts

1986-1992: Old Sturbridge Village From 1985 to 1986, Nicoll completed a post-graduate curatorial fellowship at the Winterthur Museum in Winterthur, Delaware. Upon completion of the fellowship, Nicoll returned to Massachusetts to accept a post as Curator of Exhibits at the Old Sturbridge Village, a living museum. During her time there, she served as project director for the exhibitions “Meet Your Neighbors: New England Portraits, Painters and Society, 1790-1850” and “Changing Times, Changing Lives: Women in Rural New England in the early 19th century.” During her tenure, Nicoll curated numerous noteworthy exhibitions featuring folk art, fabric collages, contemporary abstract works, paintings, drawing, prints and photography. The exhibition featured about 60 works, predominantly paintings, many of which came from Sharrer's estate. The exhibition, which represented the first public survey of Sharrer's work in many years, was organized by the Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and funded by the support of Smith alumnae Judith Plesser Targan '53, Art Museum Fund and the Charlotte Frank Rabb '35 Fund.

Personal life Nicoll serves as a member of the New England Advisory Committee of the Archives of American Art, a research center within the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

Nicoll currently resides with her family in Springfield, Massachusetts.