Jessi Atwood
Jessi has an arts background and has been working at the Met since 2010.
Laura Filloy Nadal
Born in Mexico City, Laura Filloy Nadal joined the staff of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing in 2022. Her current projects include the renovation of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, where she reenvisioned the ancient Americas galleries for local and international audiences. She co-curated the exhibition The Lives of the Gods: Divinity in Maya Art (2022-2023). Previously, she was a senior conservator and researcher at the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City, where she studied the cultural biography of objects—how they were made and used, and, what they mean. She holds a BA from Mexico’s National School of Conservation, Restoration, and Museography, and earned her MA and PhD in archaeology at the University of Paris, Panthéon-Sorbonne.
“From ‘Rich Plumes’ to War Accoutrements: Feathered Objects in the Codex Mendoza and Their Extant Representatives” (with María Olvido Moreno Guzmán), in Mesoamerican Manuscripts: New Scientific Approaches and Interpretations, edited by Maarten E.R.G.N. Jansen, Virginia M. Llado-Buisán, and Ludo Snijders, pp. 45–93. The Early Americas: History and Culture, 8. Leiden: Brill, 2019.
“The Importance of Visage, Facial Treatment, and Idiosyncratic Traits in Maya Royal Portraiture during the Reign of K’inich Janaab’ Pakal of Palenque, 615–683 CE,” in Social Skins of the Head, edited by Vera Tiesler and María Cecilia Lozada, pp. 109–28. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2018.
“Precious Feathers and Fancy Fifteenth-Century Feathered Shields” (with María Olvido Moreno Guzmán), in Rethinking the Aztec Economy, edited by Deborah L. Nichols, Frances F. Berdan and Michael E. Smith, pp. 156–94. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2017.
“Mesoamerican Archaeological Textiles, Materials, Techniques, and Contexts,” in PreColumbian Textile Conference VII / Jornadas de Textiles Precolombinos VII, Centre for Textile Research, University of Copenhagen, 2016, edited by Lena Bjerregaard and Ann Peters, pp. 7–39. Lincoln: Zea Books, University of Nebraska Lincoln Libraries, 2017.
“Lustrous Surfaces and Shades of Green: Value and Meaning in Three Mesoamerican Lapidary Ensembles from Teotihuacan, Palenque, and La Venta,” in Making Value, Making Meaning: Techné in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and Andean South America, edited by Cathy Lynne Costin, pp. 31–62. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2016.
Christine Giuntini
Christine Giuntini is responsible for textile and organic artifact conservation in the department. She has created or refined the mounting and exhibition techniques for flat and complex artifacts in more than thirty Museum exhibitions. Her research focuses on the study of materials and methods of manufacture of African and Indonesian ethnographic textiles; archaeological feather works and fabrics from South America; and composite works from Africa, Oceania, and the New World. She has contributed to the Museum's publications, including technical essays for The Essential Art of African Textiles: Design Without End (2008) and Peruvian Featherworks: Art of the Precolumbian Era (2012).
Alisa LaGamma
Born in Lubumbashi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Alisa LaGamma spent her formative years in sub-Saharan Africa. Graduate studies in African art history at Columbia University led her to undertake research in southern Gabon on the living tradition of Punu masks that culminated in her 1995 dissertation “The Art of the Punu Mukudj Masquerade: Portrait of an Equatorial Society.” A curator at the Metropolitan since 1996, her exhibition projects devoted to topics ranging from authorship to portraiture have sought to anchor African art historically and conceptually. In 2010 she was a fellow at the Center for Curatorial Leadership and in 2012 the Bard Graduate Center recognized her work with the Iris Award for Outstanding Scholarship.
LaGamma, Alisa. Eternal Ancestors: The Art of the Central African Reliquary (The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press, 2007).
———. Heroic Africans: Legendary Leaders, Iconic Sculptures (The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press, 2011).
———. Kongo: Power and Majesty (The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press, 2015).
———. Sahel: Art and Empires on the Shores of the Sahara (The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press, 2020).
———. “Silenced Mbembe Muses.” Metropolitan Museum Journal 48 (2013): 143–160.
Damien Marzocchi
Damien has worked at the Museum for over a decade, with roles throughout. He joined the Rockefeller wing shortly before commencement of the renovation in January 2020.
Matthew Noiseux
Matthew Noiseux began his career at the Museum working as part of the staff of the Department of Greek and Roman Art on the reinstallation of the Greek and Roman galleries, which opened in April 2007. He joined the staff of the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas in 2013. He holds a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MS from Columbia University.
Raychelle Osnato
Raychelle Osnato joined the department in 2020 to implement and construct new storage housing for the collection during the renovation of The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing. She received her BA in Art Conservation and Art History at the University of Delaware in 2019. She was previously a conservation assistant at the RISD Museum where she treated Samurai artifacts, ceramics, and decorative art objects for exhibitions including, Raid the Icebox Now and Daimyo Culture in Peacetime. She has past experience in paintings conservation at Winterthur Museum and archaeological conservation of mosaics with the Centro di Conservazione Archeologica (CCA) in Italy.
Joanne Pillsbury
A specialist in the art and archaeology of the ancient Americas, Joanne Pillsbury (PhD, Columbia University) was previously associate director of the Getty Research Institute and director of Pre-Columbian Studies at Dumbarton Oaks. She has published widely, including Guide to Documentary Sources for Andean Studies, 1530–1900; Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Award recipient Ancient Maya Art at Dumbarton Oaks; and Association for Latin American Art Book Award winner Past Presented: Archaeological Illustration and the Ancient Americas. Her 2017 exhibition catalogue Golden Kingdoms: Luxury Arts in the Ancient Americas won the PROSE Award for Excellence. She served as co-curator of recent exhibitions Lives of the Gods: Divinity in Maya Art (2023) and Weaving Abstraction in Ancient and Modern Art (2024).
"Aztecs in the Empire City: 'The People without History' in The Met" (The Metropolitan Museum of Art Journal, vol. 56, 2021)
Containing the Divine: Ancient Peruvian Pots (The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, vol. 80, no. 4)
- Academia.edu: Publications by Joanne Pillsbury
Lauren Posada
Lauren Posada joined the department in the fall of 2019 as a preventive conservator during the renovation and reinstallation of The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing. With a specialization in textiles, she previously worked as a conservator at the Museum at FIT focusing on the treatment, care, and exhibition of their historic costume collection. Lauren received her Master of Arts in fashion and textile studies with a concentration in conservation and collections care from the Fashion Institute of Technology, and a BFA from Pratt Institute.
David Rhoads
David Rhoads is responsible for the proper care and display of the department's collection. He joined the Museum in 2015, after having previously held the position of associate preparator at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. He received his BFA in painting from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2010.
Lydia Shaw
Lydia Shaw joined the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing in 2024. She contributes to the general administration of the department, helps coordinate the Friends of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, and assists in planning the events leading up to the reopening of the MCRW galleries. Previously, she was Administrative Assistant to the Deputy Director and Director of Finance and Administration at the Morgan Library & Museum, where she coordinated the institution’s re-accreditation with the American Alliance of Museums and its strategic planning process. She holds a BA in English Literature and American Studies from Franklin & Marshall College.
Paige Silva
Paige oversees the digital administration of the MCRW collections areas through the TMS database.
Doris Zhao
Doris Zhao joined the department in 2018 to work closely with the curatorial and collections teams on the renovation and reinstallation of The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing. She was previously the curatorial assistant at The Studio Museum in Harlem, where she organized exhibitions including Harlem Postcards: Wish You Were Here; Regarding the Figure; and Surface Area: Selections from the Permanent Collection. In addition, she has contributed essays to various publications, including Prospect 5: The Lotus in Spite of the Swamp; Fictions; and Black Refractions: Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem. She holds an MA from Columbia University.