Laurie Kalb Cosmo is a university lecturer in art history at the Leiden Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS) and member of the Research Group in Museums, Collections and Society. She is also curator, museum consultant, author, and scholar with international experience in museums, cultural heritage preservation, and university teaching. Subject expertise in European and American museum history, cultural heritage preservation, 20th c. Italian art and politics, European modernism and applied arts.

More information about Laurie Cosmo

Before joining the University of Leiden, Laurie Kalb Cosmo was a member of the art history faculty of Temple University Rome (2008-2020), where she taught courses in Museum Histories of Italy and Europe and Modern Art and Architecture under Fascism. She previously taught at Tufts University and University of California, Los Angeles and has been a curator and administrator at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Craft and Folk Art Museum Los Angeles and Peabody Essex Museum, and a Research Associate at Peabody Museum, Harvard University. The recipient of a Fulbright Professional Museum grant at Muzium Negara Kuala Lumpur and Smithsonian Institution dissertation fellowship, Cosmo has consulted for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), international university degree programs in Museum Studies, and ICCROM in Rome. She has held academic residencies at the School for Advanced Research, Santa Fe, New Mexico and Civitella Ranieri Foundation, Umbertide, Italy, participated in a broad range of international conferences and exhibition catalogues and served as a two-term board member of the ICOM international committee on Museums of Ethnography (ICME). Cosmo earned her Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and B.A. from Vassar College. Her doctoral dissertation Crafting Devotions: Tradition in Contemporary New Mexico Santos was revised into an award-winning book (University of New Mexico Press, 1994) that accompanied an exhibition of the same name.

See also: 
Leiden Art History Blog 

Fields of interest

• Museum history and theory
• Modernism
• Art and politics in Europe
• Italian modern art history
• 20th century decorative and applied arts

Research

Museum History and Theory in Europe and USA
Co-editor of volume (with Dr. Mary Bouquet) on the Rise of Museums of Modern Art in 1930s Netherlands.
Jewish Artists and Philanthropists in Rome Between 1870 - 1938

Selected Awards

Museum Fellow, 2023-2025, KNIR (Koninklijk Nederlands Instituut Rome/Royal Dutch Institute Rome/Reale Istituto Neerlandese di Roma)
Visiting Professor, April - June 2025, KNIR (Koninklijk Nederlands Instituut Rome/Royal Dutch Institute Rome/Reale Istituto Neerlandese di Roma)
Museum Lab Project 2024 - 2025 (funded by Dutch Ministry of Education)
Leiden University Study Abroad subsidy grant (2024) for MA excursion seminar to Florence, Italy (course on The Museums of the Future: Ethics, Responsibilities and Practices).
Director's Guest, 2010, 2019, Civitella Ranieri Foundation, Umbertide, Italy
Fulbright Foundation Museum Professional Award, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; School for Advanced Research, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Smithsonian Institution Dissertation Fellowship

Curriculum Vitae

Current            
2020- Present. Universiteit Leiden. Leiden, Netherlands. University Lecturer (UD1) at Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS), within Museums, Collections and Society research group (2020-2024) and Department of Arts, Media and Society (2020-present).

I co-teach a course in the Art History Minor at the KNIR (Royal Dutch Institute in Rome/Koninklijk Nederlands Instituut Rome) on Fascism and Anti-Fascism in Rome, and an excursion course on Museums of the Future at the NIKI (Dutch University Institute of Art History/Nederlands Interuniversitair Kunsthistorisch Instituut) in Florence.

Project Director: Museum Lab (Dutch Ministry of Education Funded Research project, 2023 - present) learning workshops, conference, publication

Courses:
BA1 Art in Western Europe – 1800
MA Seminar The Future of Museums (taught in Florence, Italy at NIKI [Nederlands Interuniversitair Kunsthistorisch Instituut Florence/Research Center for Italian and Dutch-Flemish Culture in Florence)
BA Seminar Fascism and Anti-Fascism in Italy (taught in Rome, Italy at KNIR [Koninklijk Instituut Nederlands Rome/Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome]
BA2 The History of Museums
BA2 Collecting in Contemporary Museums
BA3 Politics and Ethics in the Contemporary Museum

2008- 2020. Temple University Rome, Rome, Italy. Art History Professor.

Courses:
Museum History and Theory of Rome
Art Under Fascism in Italy
Cultural Heritage Preservation
Museum History and Theory excursions to Berlin, Marseille, Milan, Vienna.

Selected Consultancies
· Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. Research Associate.
· American University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
· Special Superintendency for Archaeology of Rome/Soprintendenza Speciale per I Beni Archeologici di Roma, Rome, Italy.
· ICCROM (International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property), Rome, Italy.
· Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA, USA.
· United Nations Development Programme, Republic of the Maldives.

FULL-TIME MUSEUMS USA
2002-2004 Gifts of Art Specialist. MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON.

1994-2000 Director. NEW ENGLAND FOLKLIFE CENTER, LOWELL, MA.

1990-1994 Curator. AUTRY MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN WEST, Los Angeles.

1987-1990 Curator. CRAFT AND FOLK ART MUSEUM, Los Angeles.

1986-1987 Curator. MILLICENT ROGERS MUSEUM, Taos, New Mexico

Selected Conferences and lectures

2025 "Accommodating New Expressions and an Increasing Public Commitment to Art: The Emergence of Museums of Modern Art in the Netherlands" for Panel Presenting Contemporary Arts in Museums, ca. 1880-1930: Temporary Exhibitions, Institutional Networks and Collecting 113 Annual Conference College Art Association (CAA), New York, New York

2025 “Liberation and Creativity: Jewish Artists and Philanthropists in Rome between 1870 – 1938” In conjunction with Exhibition Max Liebermann: An Impressionist from Berlin, Museum Casa di Goethe, Rome, Italy.

2024 Leiden University, Leiden, NL Organizer, Symposium Amicorum in honor of Dr. Pieter ter Keurs. 9 April 2024.

2023 Leiden University, Leiden, NL. Organizer. Panel “Modern Museum Histories,” Annual Conference of Museums, Collections and Societies Research Group, 5 July.

2022 13th Triennial NORDIK Conference of Art History in the Nordic Countries (online). Presentation on “Collecting Van Gogh and Mondrian and the Making of Modernist Museums in the Netherlands” for Panel Providing Propositions: Collections as agents in Institutionalising Processes of the 20th century,” 24-28 October.

2022 Leiden University, Leiden, NL. Organizer. Expert Workshop. “The Emergence of
Museums of Modern Art in the Netherlands, 1908-1950,” 5 July.

2022 Leiden University, Leiden, NL. Invited Presenter for Workshop on Early Modern
Cultures of Collecting. “Studying Dissecting in Early Modern Italy. ‘An Anatomy Lesson for Painters’ by the Circle of Bartolomeo Passerotti.”

2021 Centre for Historical Research for the Polish Academy of Sciences in Berlin (online). Presentation on “Reforms and Contradictions: Museums of Modern Art in the Netherlands 1914-1945.” For Panel Collection, Modernism and Social Identity: Art Collecting in Europe Between 1880-1940. 15-17 September.

2019 Academia Belgica, Rome. Invited Lecture for University of  Hasselt Architecture Students on “Building in Rome During the Fascist Ventennio.” (April, November)

2016 International Council on Museums-International Council on Museums of
Ethnography (ICOM-ICME) Annual Meeting, Milan, Italy. Panel Organizer and Chair. “The Current Landscape of Ethnographic Museums in Italy.”

2016 Temple University Rome. Symposium Organizer “Jewish Women and 1930s Rome.” Speakers Giulia Mafai, Anna Foa, Magali Sarfatti-Larson, Rachele Ferrario.

2015 Kunsthistorisches Institut, Max Planck Institut Florenz Workshop on Visualizing Otherness in Modern Italy, Florence, Italy. Invited Speaker. “Exhibiting Ethnography and Antiquities in the Fascist-Era World’s Fair Complex of EUR.”   February 26-27.

2015 Memorie d’Inciampo a Roma. Sesta Edizione. 21 Stolpersteine dell’artista Gunter Demnig (Memories of Difficulties in Rome. Sixth Edition. 21 Stumbling Blocks by Artist Gunther Demnig). Curated by Adachiara Zevi under the patronage of the President of the Republic and the support of the Coordinating Committee of the Celebrations in Memory of the Shoah. Invited attendee. January 7.

2013 MeLa (European Museums in an Age of Migrations) International Conference The Postcolonial Museum: the Pressures of Memory and the Bodies of History, University of Naples “L’Orientale,” Naples, Italy. Presentation on “Silencing Fascism’s Past in Three Museums Built for a Universal Exposition of Rome.”

Selected publications

“Reforms and Contradictions: New Museums of Modern Art in the Netherlands 1908–1946.” In Mapping Art Collecting in Europe 1860-1940. Brill/Schöningh, 2023, pp. 292-308.

“The Emergence of Museums of Modern Art in the Netherlands 1920s-1940s. Their Collections, Display and Architecture.” In Museums, Collections and Society Yearbook 2021. Holly O’Farrell and Pieter ter Keurs (eds.) Universiteit Leiden, 2022, p. 41-60.

“The Mausoleum of Augustus and the Piazza of Augusto Imperatore.” In Smarthistory. April 3, 2022 https:⁠/⁠/smarthistory.org/mausoleum-augustus/

"Private Museums in 21st Century Europe", Museums, Collections and Society Yearbook 2020, Jul 5, 2021
"Murals and Public Art in 1930s Rome.” Smarthistory · Feb 9, 2021. https:⁠/⁠/smarthistory.org/murals-1930s-fascist-rome/

“Absence and Belonging in Museums of Everyday Life. Current Solutions for Exhibiting Europe. Review of Anniversary Conference at MEK Berlin.” ICME News, 1 September 2020/90. https:⁠/⁠/icme.mini.icom.museum/icom-icme-newsletter-2020-08/

“Defining Self by Collecting the Other: Mussolini’s Museums at the World’s Fair Site in EUR.”  Visualizing Otherness in Modern Italy (XIX-XX Century), edited by Eva-Maria Troelenberg in collaboration with Melania Savino, Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, LIX. Band – 2017, Heft 1, pp. 125-147. https:⁠/⁠/www⁠.jstor.org/stable/26397459

Professional Services and Affiliatons

Current:
2024 – present. Member, Board of Directors. Besa Muzeu Foundation. Ministry of Culture, Education and Sport. Tirana, Albania.

2020 - present. Research Affiliate, LDE (Leiden Delt Erasmus) Centre for Global Heritage and Development, Leiden, NL. Member, The International Art Market Studies Association (TIAMSA).

2008 - present. Member, International Council of Museums (ICOM). National Committee ICOM ITALIA; International Committee ICME (Museums of Ethnography); International Committee of Interest ICOFOM (Museology)

Past:
2017 - 2021. Board Member, Beth Hillel Progressive Jewish Community of Rome, Italy

2013 – 2019. Board Member (two terms), International Committee for Museums of Ethnography of International Council of Museums (ICME ICOM)

1997-2000. Book review Editor, Museum Anthropology
Member, American Association of Museums, College Art Association

Ancillary Activities

ICOM
ICOM Italia, ICME (International Committee for Museums of Ethnography), ICOFOM (International Committee for Museology)

LDE (Leiden, Delft, Erasmus Universities) Centre for Global Heritage and Development
Affiliated Scholar

Publications