Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum today announced the appointment of Michelle Millar Fisher, Ph.D. as Chief Curator, effective July 13. As Chief Curator, Fisher will define the creative vision and direction of content for Cooper Hewitt, lead the museum’s five curatorial departments and conservation team, and steward the permanent collection, composed of more than 215,000 objects. Fisher will succeed Matilda McQuaid, who will be retiring from Cooper Hewitt this spring after an impactful 24-year tenure at the museum.
“Michelle is a force in the design world,” said Maria Nicanor, Director of Cooper Hewitt. “Her arrival marks an exciting new chapter at Cooper Hewitt, one rooted in gratitude to Matilda McQuaid for her leadership and legacy over the past 24 years. From here on, Michelle’s committed curatorial approach and passion for making design accessible to all will energize the museum’s creative vision, propelling it into the future. We are truly excited to have someone with her experience, care and intellectual rigor join the team at Cooper Hewitt.”
“People are the engines and dreamers behind all good design,” Fisher said. “It is my strong desire to embrace this role by fostering the positive, innovative and humane approaches to both design and the workplace that I have been fortunate to thrive in. I am beyond lucky to join such a dedicated and smart team.”
Fisher comes to Cooper Hewitt from the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), Boston where she currently serves as the Ronald C. and Anita L. Wornick Curator of Contemporary Decorative Arts. Her work at the MFA has focused on the intersections of people, power and the material world. Her most current work is dedicated to craft education, a project that will culminate in the book Craft Schools: A Traveler’s Guide, as well as a forthcoming exhibition, “Think With Your Hands: Learning Through Craft Schools.” At the MFA, she has also co-organized two large-scale permanent collection installations, led four iterations of the museum’s partnership exhibition series with the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and led an ambitious contemporary craft acquisition program.
As part of an independent team, she also led “Designing Motherhood: Things That Make and Break Our Births,” a book, touring exhibition and series of programs. The project won a Pew Center for Arts & Heritage Award, a Graham Foundation Award and the 2025 Architectural Review Award for Research in Gender and Architecture.
Previously, Fisher served as the Louis C. Madeira IV Assistant Curator of European Decorative Arts at the Philadelphia Museum of Art where she co-organized “Designs for Different Futures” in 2019. From 2014–2018, she was a curatorial assistant at the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, where she was part of the curatorial teams for exhibitions such as “Items: Is Fashion Modern?” (2017), “Symbols and Icons” (2016), “Design and Data Visualization” (2015) and “Design and Violence” (2013), among others.
In 2011, she co-founded ArtHistoryTeachingResources.org, a widely used Kress Foundation-funded project. In 2019, she co-founded Art + Museum Transparency, home to the Salary Transparency Spreadsheet.
Fisher holds a Master of Arts and Master of Philosophy in art history from the University of Glasgow, Scotland, and received a Master of Philosophy and doctorate in art history at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York. She was part of the 2022 fellow cohort at the Center for Curatorial Leadership.
ABOUT COOPER HEWITT, SMITHSONIAN DESIGN MUSEUM
Cooper Hewitt is America’s design museum. Inclusive, innovative and experimental, the museum’s dynamic exhibitions, education programs, master’s program, publications and online resources inspire, educate and empower people through design. An integral part of the Smithsonian Institution—the world’s largest museum, education and research complex—Cooper Hewitt is located on New York City’s Museum Mile in the landmarked Carnegie Mansion. Steward of one of the world’s most diverse and comprehensive design collections—over 215,000 objects that range from an ancient Egyptian faience cup dating to about 1100 BC to contemporary 3D-printed objects and digital code—Cooper Hewitt welcomes everyone to discover the importance of design and its power to change the world.
For more information, visit www.cooperhewitt.org or follow @cooperhewitt on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.
