Elaine Heumann Gurian
Elaine Heumann Gurian is a consultant/advisor to many museums and visitor centers that are beginning, building, or reinventing themselves. She has worked in the museum field since 1968, first as a community activist, then a director of museum education, and subsequently a professional deputy director for institutions dedicated to social justice. She holds a B.A. in art history from Brandeis University and an M.Ed. in elementary education and art education from State College at Boston.
Elaine Heumann Gurian is widely recognized as a leader in the museum field. She served as Acting Director of the Cranbrook Institute of Science (1997-1999), Deputy Director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (1991-1994), Deputy Director for Public Program Planning for the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution (1990-1991), and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Museums at the Smithsonian (1987-1990), providing oversight for all 14 Smithsonian museums. For 16 years, Gurian was the Director of the Exhibit Center at the Boston Children’s Museum (1972-1987), and from 1969 to 1972, she was Director of Education at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston.
FEATURED WORK & CORE COMPETENCIES
Advising museums on operations, construction, planning, supervision, project management, and staff training for inclusion and community building
Coaching museum directors and senior staff in institutions undergoing change
Senior consultant to organizations that concentrate on reconciliation between the majority and minority cultures of their country
Her list of consulting clients is extensive and includes, among many others: the Museum of Euro-Maidan, Kiev, Ukraine; Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria, Canada; Fundacion TyPA, Buenos Aires, Argentina; the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture; the Jewish Museum, Berlin; Museum of the Resistance, Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic; Te Papa, the National Museum of New Zealand; and the Dubai Municipality Children’s Museum, Dubai, UAE. She is also the founder and former president of the Museum Group, an association of senior museum consultants.
Ms. Gurian is a teacher, coach, and lecturer at many academic and in-service programs of museum studies worldwide. She annually lectures in the museum leadership program, Resilience, UK, and GW Museum Education, Washington, DC. She is the author of Centering the Museum: Writings for the Post-Covid Age (2021) and Civilizing the Museum: The Collected Writings of Elaine Heumann Gurian (2006). In 2006, Ms. Gurian was inducted as one of the 100 Centennial Honor Roll members by the American Association of Museums, who also honored her with the Distinguished Service to Museums Awards in 2004, the most prestigious recognition in the American museum profession.