JONATHAN P. CLANCY
EDUCATION
The Graduate Center, City University of New York, PhD. Art History, 2008, New York, NY. Dissertation title: “Transcendentalism and the Crisis of Self in American Art and Culture, 1830-1930.”
Rutgers University, BA Art History (Honors) and History, 2001, New Brunswick, NJ.
EXPERIENCE
Director of Collections and Preservation, The Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms, 2020-present
● Work with the Executive Director and the Board to establish collection policies, preservation goals, preventative conservation needs and manage a collection totaling over 5,000 items.
● Created an online collections database that is capable of hosting specialized exhibitions and a collection highlights site to engage visitors unable to visit the museum.
● Curated the virtual exhibition Things Wrought by The United Crafts: An Expression of Modern Life that explored the structure and production of Stickley’s United Crafts enterprise using the museum’s exceptional collection of green ash furniture as the entry point.
● Created a series of online classes to generate revenue, keep our core audience engaged, and reach geographically disparate constituents during the pandemic.
● Worked closely with the Collections Committee and the Board to navigate accessions / deaccessions, loans, and acquisitions.
Principal, Jonathan Clancy Art Advisory, 2017-Present
● Provide collection management, valuation, educational and interpretive services, and research for institutions and individual collectors.
● Work with a variety of objects from American fine and decorative arts to Asian ceramics and bronzes.
● Author collection guides and entries for institutions and galleries.
● Provide curatorial services from accessions and deaccessioning, to policy implementation, to exhibition design and support.
Director, American Fine and Decorative Arts Program, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, New York, 2009-September 2017
● Conceptualized and built a new curriculum development for MA program; hiring and retention of faculty.
● Increased student contact hours while reducing budget.
● Implemented partnerships with the Redwood Library and Athenaeum and the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms to provide students with real-world cataloging exercises.
● Advised student dissertations ranging in topic from the carving at Drayton Hall, to the drawings of Dale Chihuly, to lithographer John Gast.
● Increased student travel to include trips each year to Boston, Delaware, Charleston, SC, The Antiques forum at Williamsburg, Washington, DC, Newport, RI, and Chicago.
● Oversee annual internship collaboration with the Winter Antiques Show; partner with event management to ensure meaningful professional development and experiences for students.
Faculty, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, New York, 2008-present
● Developed and will teach Decorative Arts in America, 1775-1900 (Spring 2017).
● Developed and taught The Birth of Global Arts and Design.
● Developed and taught American Decorative Art, 1860-1970.
● Developed and taught American Fine Art, Colonial to 1860.
● Established and taught American Fine Art, 1860-1970.
● Created and taught a course in the fundamentals of Connoisseurship called “The Techniques and Materials of Art.”
● Developed and taught a course on Research Methodologies that blends both the practical aspects of research and the theoretical positions.
● Created a course titled “The Business of Art” that combines essential knowledge of collection building from budgets, to insurance, to basic legal issues.
● Developed and taught online courses.
Part-time Lecturer, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 2008
● Taught the introductory Art History survey, spanning from cave painting to the late Gothic.
● Created an environment in which students with diverse backgrounds and ages could succeed in mastering the material.
Adjunct Lecturer, City College, City University of New York, 2005-8
● Developed and Taught History of Modern Design.
● Taught the introductory Art History survey, spanning from Neolithic art through Contemporary art.
● Taught both graduate- and undergraduate level American Art / Decorative Arts Survey.
● Developed and taught a writing intensive seminar focused on the American Arts and Crafts movement and its relationship to the built environment of the City College campus.
Visiting Lecturer, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, 2006-8
● Lectured on topics such as Frank Lloyd Wright, the Arts and Crafts Movement, and the International Style.
Adjunct Lecturer, Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, 2006
● Taught a survey of American Art, 1776-1900.
● Graded papers and exams.
Adjunct Lecturer, Parsons School of Design, New York, 2004-6
● Taught sections of Critical Reading and Writing, a course focused on research methodologies, including one section for non-native speakers.
● Designed assignments and assessments.
CURATORIAL
Guest Curator, Original: Gustav Stickley Furnishes his Log House, The Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms, May 20 – December 31, 2017
● Cataloged and researched objects original to the house for the exhibition.
● Exhibition planning including authoring of wall texts, labels, and layout of the galleries.
● Assisted with the arrangement of significant loans from private and public collections.
Consultant Curator, Metalwork, Two Red Roses Foundation, Tarpon Springs, Florida, 2008-10
● Cataloged one of the most important privately-held collections of Arts and Crafts metalwork.
● Assessed condition, authenticity, and historical significance of objects in the collection.
● Advised on de-accessioning and new acquisitions.
● Resultant catalog, These Humbler Metals: Arts and Crafts Metalwork from the Two Red Roses Foundation Collection, published in 2014.
Guest Co-Curator, Beauty in Common Things: American Art Pottery from the Two Red Roses Foundation, Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL, October 4, 2008 – April 25, 2009
● Cataloged and researched eighty-eight objects for exhibition.
● Assisted with exhibition planning including authoring of wall texts, labels, and layout of the gallery.
● Located and secured photographic rights for all images in the catalog not owned by the foundation.
● Co-author of the resulting catalog.
Independent Architectural and Historical Consultant, 2004-9
● Clients included Looney Ricks Kiss, Landmark Properties.
● Wrote reports that focused on the historical context of neighborhoods that assisted developers with creating redevelopment plans consonant with both the local and specific needs of the site, as well as conforming to the principles laid out by the Congress of New Urbanism.
● Projects included proposed 4th neighborhood for Radburn development in Fair Lawn, New Jersey.
Senior Researcher, David A. Hanks and Associates, New York, 2003
● Researched designer biographies for American Streamlined Design
● Located and secured reproduction rights for a number of images included in the publication.
AWARDS
University Fellowship, The Graduate Center, 2003
Voorsanger Fellowship in Decorative Arts, The Graduate Center, May 2003
Dean’s Fellowship, The Graduate Center, 2002
University Fellowship, The Graduate Center, 2002
Shenson Scholar Award, Art History Department, CUNY, 2001
University Fellowship, The Graduate Center, 2001
Departmental Honors, Art History, Rutgers University, 2001
PUBLICATIONS
Jason Jacques Gallery, 30 for 30. Editor for publication, contributed entries on pieces by Gustav Klimt, Jean Carriès, George Hoentschel, and Amphora Pottery.
“Book Review: Philadelphia: Finding the Hidden City,” in The Philadelphia Inquirer, November 3, 2017
American Art After Emerson. Manuscript in process. The text explores the impact of Transcendentalism on the Luminist painters, the modernist vision of Ryder and Hartley, and upon the practice and theoretical underpinnings of the Arts and Crafts movement.
“Book Review: Art & Industry in Early America: Rhode Island Furniture 1650-1830,” for American Furniture (Chipstone: 2017).
Ceramics from the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms. November 2016.
These Humbler Metals: Arts and Crafts Metalwork from the Two Red Roses Foundation Collection (Tarpon Springs, FL: Two Red Roses, 2014). Additional essays by David Cathers and Susan J. Montgomery.
“Passing the Buck: Money Painting and Mischief in Late-Nineteenth-Century America,” in Art and Authenticity (Lund Humphries, 2012), 154-65.
“‘No Medium for the Craftsman Unsure of Himself’: Studio Pottery After World War II,” in Bruce A. Austin, Frans Wildenhain 1950-75: Creative and Commercial American Ceramics at Mid-Century (Rochester: RIT Press, 2012), 123-57.
“Gustav Stickley’s Metal Shop: Reform, Design and the Business of Craft,” Journal of Design History 25 (June 2012): 171-89.
“Human Agency and the Myth of Divine Salvation in Copley’s Watson and the Shark,” American Art 26 (Spring 2012): 102-11.
“The Men at the Matt Morgan Art Pottery,” Journal of the American Art Pottery Association 26 (Sumer 2010): 6-11 (with Martin Eidelberg).
“Thoreau, Elbert Hubbard, and the Arts and Crafts Movement in America,” Journal of Modern Craft 2 (July 2009): 143-60.
“Marblehead Revisited: The Myth of Hannah Tutt,” Style 1900 (November 2008) (with Martin Eidelberg).
Beauty in Common Things: American Arts and Crafts Pottery from the Two Red Roses Foundation (St Petersburg, FL: Two Red Roses, 2008) (with Martin Eidelberg).
“Arts and Crafts Pottery from the Two Red Roses Foundation,” Journal of the American Art Pottery Society 24 (Sept. / Oct. 2008): 9-27 (with Martin Eidelberg).
Warman’s Rookwood Pottery (Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2008) (captions by Denise Rago).
“Tiffany’s ‘Dream Garden’: A New Perspective in Glass.” PART, no. 11 (Fall 2004).
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS AND INVITED LECTURES
“Those Nice Arts: New Discoveries on American Colonial Quillwork,” Invited Lecture, Boston Seminarians, May 2018.
“Unpacking the Log House: Gustav Stickley as Collector,” Amy Stahl Memorial Lecture, Annual Scholars Symposium, Craftsman Farms, Parsippany, NJ, October 2017.
“Ceramics at the Stickley Museum,” Annual Symposium, Craftsman Farms, Parsippany, NJ, October 2016.
“New Research on Arts and Crafts Metalwork,” 29th Annual Arts and Crafts Conference, Ashville, North Carolina, February 2016.
“Elbert Hubbard, Transcendentalism, and the Arts and Crafts in America,” Invited Lecture, Arts and Crafts Society of Central New York, Syracuse, New York, September 2015.
“Can You Dig It? New Research on John Bartlam,” Invited Lecture, Historic Charleston Foundation, November 2014.
“A New Epoch for Domestic Interiors in the West: The Glass Mosaics of Giannini & Hilgart,” College Art Association 102nd Annual Conference, Chicago, Ill., February 2014.
“’The City Fairly Swarms with Painters’: A New Look at Painting in 18th Century Charleston,” Charleston Heritage Symposium. November 2013.
“New Research on Syracuse Metalwork: Stickley and OMS in Context,” Arts and Crafts Society of Central New York, Syracuse, New York, June 2013.
“American Furniture: Regional Characteristics and the Rise of American Collections,” McCullough Hall, Morristown, NJ. May 2013.
“The Material Influence of Things,” two-part lecture series, Craftsman Farms, Parsippany, NJ, April 2013.
“Objects of Artistic Merit: Reconsidering Southern Painting and Patrons,” Historic Charleston Foundation, January 2013.
“Museums and the Marketplace: The Metropolitan Museum’s New American Wing in Context,” Dartmouth Alumni Association, October 2012.
“Crafting Modernism(s): American Studio Ceramics in the Post War Period,” Kern Lecture Series, Rochester Institute of Technology, September 2012.
“Forging a Useable Past: Scholars, Scholarship, and the Arts and Crafts,” Craftsman Farms Annual Forum, October 2011.
“Utility—Simplicity—Beauty: Design and the Arts and Crafts Interior,” keynote address, 2011 Princeton Fine Art and Antique Show, September 2011.
“The Cult of Washington: Rethinking Americans’ Aversion to History Painting,” Southeastern College Art Conference, Richmond Virginia, October 2010.
“Nature and the Decorative Arts in America,” class for Katherine Manthorne’s seminar “Nature in American Art,” CUNY Graduate Center, November 2010.
“Human Agency and the Myth of Divine Salvation in Copley’s Watson and the Shark,” Association of Historians of American Art Symposium, St. Francis College, Brooklyn, October 2010.
“Fresh Perspectives on the Arts and Crafts,” opening address, 23rd Annual Arts and Crafts Conference, Ashville, North Carolina, February 2010.
“Living the Simple Life,” four-part lecture series, Craftsman Farms, Parsippany, NJ, Septmber 2009.
“Heade, the Hudson, and the Luminists,” Home on the Hudson: Women and Men Painting Landscapes, 1825-75, CUNY Graduate Center, New York, June 2009.
“Highlights from the Two Red Roses Collection,” American Art Pottery Association Annual Convention, Langhorne, PA, April 2009.
“Pottery of the Arts and Crafts Movement,” Lecture for the American Art Pottery Association at Craftsman Farms, Parsippany, NJ, March 2009.
“Thoreau, Elbert Hubbard, and the Arts and Crafts in America,” College Art Association 96th Annual Conference, Dallas, Texas, February 2008.
“The Automobile and the Shape of Suburban Homes,” Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association 15th Annual Conference in New Brunswick, NJ, November 2005.
“Mass-Producing Individuality, Sears, Roebuck & Company and the American Home,” Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association 12th Annual Conference in Pittsburgh, PA, November 2002.
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Vetting Committee, Winter Antiques Show, 2013-17.
Organizer and Chair, Annual Symposium for Emerging Scholars, The Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms, 2010-present.
Prepared a position paper and appraisal of Gustav Stickley’s Syracuse NY home for a committee proposing its acquisition by Everson Museum, summer 2012
Manuscript reviewer, Journal of Design History, 2010.
INSTITUTIONAL SERVICE
Chair, Educational Technology Committee, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, 2011-15.
Committee for Distinctions in Theses, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, 2011-present.
Academic Status Review Committee, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, 2009-present.
Faculty Handbook Committee, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, 2009-12.
Interviewer for Admissions, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, 2008-present.
Managed transition of curriculum from UK Sotheby’s Institute of Art to New York State accreditation for American Fine and Decorative Art Program, 2009-11.
Manchester University Validation Committee, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, 2009-11.
Academic Policies and Procedures Committee, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, 2009-10.
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
College Art Association
American Association of Museums
Southeastern College Art Association
Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association