Melissa Wolfe joined the Art Museum in 2015 as curator and head of the Department of American Art. She oversaw an extensive reinterpretation of the museum’s American art galleries that opened in 2016.
She previously was curator of American art at the Columbus Museum of Art, where she has worked for 14 years on a succession of important exhibitions, catalogues and collection development. Her projects “George Bellows and the American Experience” (2013), “George Tooker: A Retrospective” (2008) and “In Monet’s Garden: The Lure of Giverny” (2007) were awarded significant funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Henry Luce Foundation and Terra Foundation for American Art.
Wolfe received undergraduate degrees from Stephens College in Columbia, Mo., and a master’s degree and doctorate in the history of art at The Ohio State University, where she also served as adjunct professor.
Notable media appearances and mentions
- On the Art with SLAM: “Election Series” (Classic 107.3, Nov. 4, 2024)
- Online catalogue raisonné underway for painter George Caleb Bingham (Joplin Globe, Jan. 12, 2020)
- All of Missouri Painter George Caleb Bingham’s Work Will Soon Be Free to The World Online (KCUR-FM, Jan. 5, 2020)
- St. Louis Art Museum Acquires Work By Famed Black Sculptor Elizabeth Catlett (St. Louis Public Radio, Oct. 11, 2019)
- Saint Louis Art Museum Has Acquired ‘Seated Woman,’ Elizabeth Catlett’s Record-Setting Sculpture (Culture Type, Oct. 11, 2019)
- Sargent’s “Charlotte Cram” Finds New Home (Fine Art Connoisseur, Dec. 14, 2017)
- St. Louis Art Museum buys John Singer Sargent portrait of girl for $2.2 million (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Dec. 12, 2017)
- Bingham’s ‘Verdict of the People’ to take center stage at Trump’s inauguration (St. Louis Public Radio, Dec. 16, 2016)
- SLAM reopens expanded American Art galleries (St. Louis American, Oct. 27, 2016)
- St. Louis Art Museum announces major acquisition (The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Dec. 15, 2015)
- Art Museum acquires ‘Sunday Morning Breakfast’ by Horace Pippin (The St. Louis American, Dec. 15, 2015)
- The Saint Louis Art Museum announces a major new acquisition (St. Louis Magazine, Dec. 15, 2015)
- Radio interview: Bingham’s rivers connect nature and politics, local and national audiences (St. Louis Public Radio, Feb. 20, 2015)
- St. Louis Art Museum takes visitors on ‘The Voyage of Life’ (The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Feb. 15, 2015)
Television and video
- Melissa Wolfe Re-imagines the American Galleries at SLAM (HEC TV, Oct 31, 2016)
- SLAM Celebrates Folk Art with Self-Taught Genius (HEC-TV, June 16, 2016)
- New on View: Horace Pippin’s Sunday Morning Breakfast (SLAM, December 18, 2015)
Recent SLAM exhibitions
- Art Along the Rivers: A Bicentennial Celebration (2021)
- Storm of Progress: German Art After 1800 from the Saint Louis Art Museum (2020)
- Self Taught Genius: Treasures from the American Folk Art Museum (2016)