Carol Lowrey was appointed Curator of the National Arts Club Permanent Collection (part-time) in 1991. A specialist in American and Canadian art of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, she holds Masters degrees in Art History and Library Science from the University of Toronto and a Ph.D. in Art History from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She is the author of numerous articles, essays and exhibition catalogues, especially in relation to her area of specialization, American Impressionism. Recent publications include Richard Hayley Lever (Spanierman Gallery, 2003) and The Golden Age of American Impressionism (Watson-Guptill, 2003), co-authored with William H. Gerdts. Dr. Lowrey is also the author of A Noble Tradition: American Paintings from the National Arts Club (Florence Griswold Museum, 1995). She is currently preparing a catalogue of selected paintings from the NAC Permanent Collection.

As Curator of the Permanent Collection, Dr. Lowrey is responsible for the research, documentation and interpretation of all artwork belonging to the club. Since the inception of her employment, she has spent considerable time studying the club’s records (1898-1960), on deposit at the Archives of American art in Washington, D.C. Her diligent research has allowed her to reconstruct the history of the permanent collection, mainly in relation to the diploma presentations given to the club between 1910 and 1950 in conjunction with the Artist Life Membership Program.

The Curator’s duties also include developing exhibitions, lectures, publications and other interpretive programs intended to educate members, the scholarly community and the public at large. Over the course of her thirteen years at the club, she has given tours of the collection to members and visitors, ranging from patrons groups from institutions such as the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and the Hudson River Museum to Sotheby’s American Art Course. Working with the Curatorial Committee, she also administers an ongoing restoration program devoted to the conservation of paintings, works on paper and period frames. She also evaluates loan requests and acquisitions, establishes liaisons with related institutions, both locally and nationally, and oversees the general, day-to-day maintenance of the collection.