SIAMS Faculty

The program is led by two faculty members and two graduate teaching assistants. Guest lecturers address special topics. The staff of the Smith College Museum of Art introduces students to their departments, lecture, and serve as advisers for the class’s special exhibition.

Marion Goethals, Director of SIAMS, served for many years as Deputy Director and Director of Programs at the Williams College Museum of Art.  She also taught art history and a January-term course in museum studies at Williams. She is now a consultant on museum planning, collection management, and evaluation of institutional effectiveness, based in Richmond, Virginia.  She holds a B.A. from Duke University and an M.A. from the Williams College Graduate Program in Art History and attended the Getty Foundation’s Museum Leadership Institute.  She has served as a trustee of the Association of College and University Museums and Galleries and the Williamstown Art Conservation Center and is currently on the Board of the Sagamore, An Adirondack Great Camp.

Denise A. Gray, Associate Director, is an independent art and museum education consultant, specializing in artist-community partnerships, educator/docent training, and adolescent audiences. She spent 12 years as a staff member at the Museum of Contemporary, Los Angeles, and has consulted at cultural organizations across the United States. She has a B.A. in art history from Smith College and a M.S.Ed from Bank Street College through the Leadership Program in Museum Education. She has been a contributing writer to From Periphery to Center: Art Museum Education in the 21st Century published by the National Art Education Association, Museum News and the Journal on Museum Education. From 2002-2011, she served on the Executive Board for the AAM Committee on Education, and currently serves on the Board of Museum Educators of Southern California.

Katy Kline, former Associate Director of SIAMS, is currently Interim Director of the Williams College Museum of Art.

Graduate Teaching Assistants staff both the residential and the teaching components of the session.  They are either currently enrolled in graduate programs in art history or have recently completed a graduate degree. Graduate Assistants in previous years have come from Yale University, New York University, Williams College, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Tufts University, and the City University of New York.

Suzannah Fabing founded and, until recently, directed the Summer Institute in Art Museum Studies. While she was director of the Smith College Museum of Art, Ms. Fabing taught a museum studies seminar during Smith’s January Interterm. This three-week course was the precursor to the SIAMS program which began in 2006.