Medieval Art and The Cloisters Team

Andrea Myers Achi is responsible for the care, study, and interpretation of The Met’s collection of late antique, Byzantine, and Eastern Christian art. With over two decades of archaeological, academic, and curatorial expertise, Achi has organized and co-organized a series of groundbreaking exhibitions, including Afterlives: Modern Art in The Byzantine Crypt (2024–2027), Africa and Byzantium (2023–2024), The Good Life: Collecting Late Antique Art at The Met (2021–2023), Crossroads: Power and Piety (2020–2022), and Art and Peoples of Kharga Oasis (2017–2021). She holds a PhD in Byzantine Art History and Archaeology (Institute of Fine Arts, NYU), two master’s degrees in Ancient Near Eastern and Egyptian Studies and Art History and Archaeology (NYU), and a BA from Barnard College.

Farhan Ali joined the Museum in 1998 and held various positions in the Departments of Retail, Finance, Digital, and The Director’s Office before joining the Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters’ administration team. He oversees departmental operations and events, coordinates the Visiting Committee and Friends Group, and serves as a liaison to other Museum departments. He is the longest serving member of The Met’s Personal Advisory Committee (PAC) and is an active member of The Met’s 25 Year Club. Ali has been an amateur Naturalist at the American Museum of Natural History since 2003 and an amateur Astronomer with the Custer Institute & Observatory since 2015.

Christina Alphonso joined the Museum in 1991. She oversees The Met Cloisters’ daily operations, finances, and special events, and is involved in crafting departmental strategies and capital projects. Alphonso also directs operations of The Cloisters’ gardens, co-manages the @metcloisters Instagram account, contributed to departmental blog posts, and acts as a liaison with other Museum departments. Alphonso received her BA from Bryn Mawr College, MA from Hunter College, and completed doctoral coursework at The City University of New York. Her areas of interest include fourteenth-century Italian figural silks and the intersection of the Museum’s living garden collection with medieval art and culture.

Carly Amarant grows and maintains the gardens of The Met Cloisters. After earning a bachelor's degree in medical anthropology at Manhattan College, she completed a three-year herbalism apprenticeship at Sacred Vibes Apothecary in Brooklyn, NY and a two-month conservation apprenticeship at United Plant Savers in Rutland, OH. As a graduate of the New York Botanical Garden’s School of Professional Horticulture, Amarant has worked in several private ornamental vegetable and herb gardens, including the Oak Spring Garden Foundation in Virginia and the Iroki Estate in New York. She is passionate about sharing the horticultural, ethnobotanical, and medicinal values of plants in The Cloisters’ gardens.

Christine Brennan joined the Department in 1992. A specialist in the history of collecting, she oversees departmental collections management activities and provenance research. Brennan’s expertise focuses on the market for medieval art in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Europe and America. She has contributed to exhibitions at The Met and the Bard Graduate Center including Making The Met, 1870–2020 (2020–2021) and Salvaging the Past: Georges Hoentschel and French Decorative Arts from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2013), respectively. She earned her PhD from the Bard Graduate Center with a dissertation titled, The Brummer Gallery and the Market for Medieval Art in Paris and New York, 1906-1949, and an MA in history and a certificate in Museum Studies from New York University.

Jeff Elliott joined The Met in 2006 and worked in the Departments of Security, European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, and Modern and Contemporary Art before joining the Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters. He is responsible for the proper care, storage, and display of the medieval art collection at The Met 5th Avenue. An artist in the fields of painting, sculpture, mixed media, and sequential art, Elliot holds a BA in painting and sculpture from the University of Idaho, Moscow, and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in art therapy at New York University.

Ellen Enderle joined the Department in 2022. She supports the Provenance Researcher and Collections Manager in collections management projects including researching the permanent collection, maintaining and digitizing collection records, and monitoring gallery conditions. She also serves as the editor of the Department’s newsletter. Ellen holds a BA in art history from Columbia University and an MA in Decorative Arts, Design History and Material Culture from the Bard Graduate Center, where she is currently enrolled as a PhD student.

Sophia Figuereo joined the Department in 2022. Her key responsibilities include managing departmental projects such as gallery reinstallations, temporary exhibitions at The Met Cloisters, and the implementation of departmental strategic goals and initiatives. Before joining The Met, Figuereo held positions at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum and Scholastic. She holds a BFA from The Cooper Union School for the Advancement of Art & Science.

Shirin Fozi is a specialist in the art of the northern European Middle Ages. She has published widely on Romanesque and Gothic monuments, with an emphasis on tomb sculpture, women’s monastic communities, and the modern fate of medieval artworks. She holds a PhD and MA from Harvard University and a BA from Williams College. Before coming to The Met in 2022, Fozi was a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh (2013-2022), a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University (2010-2013), and a lecturer at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2003-2010) and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (2002-2010).

Melanie Holcomb oversees the collection of western medieval art at The Met 5th Avenue, in addition to guiding the Department’s strategic vision across its two locations. She has organized or co-organized numerous exhibitions including Pen and Parchment: Drawing in the Middle Ages (2009), Jerusalem 1000-1400: Every People Under Heaven (2016–2017), Jewelry: The Body Transformed (2018–2019), and Rich Man, Poor Man: Art, Class and Commerce in a Late Medieval Town (2023–2024). Her projects have been fueled by a career-long fascination with how art works—the functions it serves and methods it uses to communicate. She holds a PhD from the University of Michigan, a BA from Smith College, a Certificate in Horticulture from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and has lectured, taught, and published widely.

Amelia Roché Hyde first joined The Met in 2018 as an intern. In her current role, she supports the Department’s curatorial team with the research and planning of temporary exhibitions, permanent collections projects, and related publications. She has researched and written on The Cloisters’ tapestry, ivory, and textile collections. Hyde heads several of the Department’s digital initiatives, including co-managing the @metcloisters Instagram account. She holds an MA in the history of art from The Courtauld Institute of Art and a BA in arts management and art history from the College of Charleston.

C. Griffith Mann joined the Museum in 2013. Mann is responsible for the medieval collections and curatorial team at The Met 5th Avenue and for directing the staff and operations of The Met Cloisters. A specialist in the arts of late medieval Italy, he has published on civic patronage, painting, and devotion in Tuscany. Mann has contributed to exhibitions on the medieval cult of relics, the art and archaeology of medieval Novgorod, and French manuscript illumination. He served as Chief Curator and Deputy Director at The Cleveland Museum of Art (2008-2013) and as medieval curator and Director of the Curatorial Division at The Walters Art Museum (2004-2008). Mann received his BA in art history and history from Williams College and his PhD in medieval art from The Johns Hopkins University.

Stephanie Pace helps to grow and maintain the living collection in the gardens of The Met Cloisters. She holds a BS in biology from St. Edward’s University and studied horticulture at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Before joining the Museum in 2024, Stephanie maintained the gardens of Pier 3 at Brooklyn Bridge Park. She is especially interested in ecology and supporting native wildlife through horticulture.

Julia Perratore is a specialist in the medieval art of southern Europe, with a particular focus on the Iberian Peninsula. Her research interests include artistic interactions across cultures, the interplay of art and environment, and the history of collecting and museum display. Perratore curated the exhibition Spain, 1000–1200: Art at the Frontiers of Faith (2021–2022) at The Met Cloisters, which brought together artworks created at the intersection of religious traditions. She holds a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA from New York University.

Earnestine Qiu supports the Mary and Michael Jaharis Associate Curator of Byzantine Art with research for temporary exhibitions and permanent collections projects. Qiu holds a master’s degree in art history from Tufts University and bachelor’s degrees in linguistics and art history from Rutgers University. She is currently a PhD candidate at Princeton University, where she is writing a dissertation on depictions of imperial power and space in the Byzantine and Armenian Alexander Romance manuscripts produced after the first fall of Constantinople.

Carly Still manages the living collection at The Met Cloisters. She oversees the design, planting, and maintenance of the gardens and grounds, as well as the seasonal potted displays and holiday decorations. Her work involves sourcing plants, researching herbs for the living collection, and leading garden programs and tours. Still is particularly interested in fragrant flowers, medieval plant lore, and the medicinal use of herbs in The Cloisters’ Bonnefont Herb Garden. Her interest in the natural world and art have always been interconnected. Still holds a BFA in printmaking from the State University of New York, New Paltz and completed a certificate in horticulture from the New York Botanical Garden. She is the recipient of the Chanticleer Scholarship in Professional Development.

Andrew Winslow first joined The Met Cloisters in 2002, working in the Department of Visitor Experience. Since 2007, he has been responsible for the proper care, storage, and display of The Cloisters’ art collection. Winslow holds a BFA in painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Peter Barnet served as curator at the Detroit Institute of Arts, where he organized the exhibition Images in Ivory: Precious Objects of the Gothic Age (1998) and co-authored the accompanying catalogue and the Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Detroit Institute of Arts. He supervised major gallery renovations and reinstallations at The Met from 1998 on, in addition to the exhibitions Lions, Dragons and Other Beasts: Aquamanilia of the Middle Ages, Vessels for Church and Table (2006) at the Bard Graduate Center, and Earth, Sea, and Sky: Nature in Western Art—Masterpieces from the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2012–13), which traveled to Tokyo and Beijing. He is currently working on a book about the medieval sculpture collection at the Museum.

Barbara Drake Boehm curated the exhibitions Jerusalem 1000–1400: Every People Under Heaven (2016–2017), The Game of Kings (2011–2012), Prague: The Crown of Bohemia (2005–2006), and Enamels of Limoges (1996). She contributed to the exhibitions L'Art du Jeu (2012–2013) at the Musée de Cluny, Paris, and Treasures of Heaven (2010–2011) (Cleveland, Baltimore, London). A graduate of Wellesley College, Boehm directed the Curatorial Studies program administered with the Institute of Fine Arts, from which she received her PhD.

Helen C. Evans oversaw the installation of the Mary and Michael Galleries of Byzantine Art, the first galleries of Byzantine art in a major encyclopedic museum. Her groundbreaking exhibitions include The Glory of Byzantium (1997), Byzantium: Faith and Power (2004), Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition (2012), and Armenia! (2018). She is a former head of The Met’s Forum of Curators, Conservators and Research Scientists and a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America. She is a past President of both the International Center of Medieval Art (ICMA) and the Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC). In 2020, the Armenian General Benevolent Union established the Helen C. Evans Scholarship for students studying Armenian art, art history, and the early church.

Timothy B. Husband worked in the Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters for more than forty years. He studied at the Fogg Museum as an undergraduate at Harvard University, received his MA from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and completed his doctoral coursework at Columbia University. Focusing on the later Middle Ages, mostly in the German-speaking world, his interests include sculpture, tapestry, goldsmiths' work, ceramics, manuscripts, and stained glass in both the secular and ecclesiastical realms. He curated many exhibitions, including The Art of Illumination: The Limbourg Brothers and the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry (2010), The Treasury of Basel Cathedral (2001), and The Medieval Housebook and the Art of Illumination (1999).

Charles T. Little holds a PhD from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. His main areas of interest are medieval ivory carving and sculpture and he has published widely in both areas. He co-authored, with Elizabeth C. Parker, The Cloister Cross: Its Art and Meaning (1994), edited the exhibition catalogue Set in Stone: The Face in Medieval Sculpture (2006), and organized the exhibition The Winchester Bible: A Masterpiece of Medieval Art (2014–2015). He is a past President of the International Center of Medieval Art (ICMA).