Kristan McKinsey

Biography

Kristan H. McKinsey is passionate about the arts and history. She holds a BA in Art History with a Concentration in Asian Studies from Swarthmore College and an MA in Early American Culture from the Winterthur Museum Program at the University of Delaware, writing her thesis on the professional and civic lives of silversmiths active in New Amsterdam and New York City from 1670 to 1750. Between programs she trained as a modern dancer, supporting herself as a financial analyst at Citibank.

McKinsey enjoyed a 32-year professional museum career beginning at the Saint Louis Art Museum, where she researched, planned and executed the reinstallation of  the American and European Decorative Arts collections and period rooms in newly created gallery space. Next, she professionalized the collection and exhibition programs at the Evanston Historical Society outside Chicago. For 20 years, McKinsey was curator of Lakeview Museum and then Peoria Riverfront Museum, responsible for the care and growth of the museum’s permanent art, folk art, history and science collections; managing the exhibition schedule; lecturing; writing exhibition catalogs; and, curating exhibitions from the museum’s collections and a number of private collections.

McKinsey retired from museum work in 2016 to become Director of the Illinois Women Artists Project, a research and documentation project housed at Bradley University. She served 12 years on the board of ArtsPartners of Central Illinois, including three as President; and is in her 8 th year on the board of Fine Arts Society of Peoria, and her 3rd year as President. She is on the Illinois State Historical Society board and a regular contributor to the Society’s popular magazine, Heritage, writing on Illinois women artists active before 1940. McKinsey previously was a member of the Peoria Civic Center Fine Arts Commission and the Peoria Public Library’s Community Relations Committee.

McKinsey taught 20th century art history, non-Western art, and art of ancient times to the Renaissance at Bradley University. She has lectured at museums around the country on a variety of subjects, including American silver, studio art glass, and 19 th and 20 th century art, and made presentations on several aspects of museum management at professional museum meetings. McKinsey is a museum emergency preparedness specialist and trainer.

McKinsey enjoys cooking, swimming, playing the piano, reading, doing origami, sewing and gardening. She has an extensive collection of vintage clothes and accessories as well as vintage salt and pepper shakers.