Hello and welcome. I’m so glad you’re here!

I am a curator, art historian, and writer based in New York City, working at the intersection of art, archives, and storytelling. I am deeply grateful for my interdisciplinary education, holding degrees from Pratt Institute (MLIS), the Bard Graduate Center (MA in Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture), and Hunter College (BA in Art History). 

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My path has never been linear or conventional. I arrived in New York City fresh from a small town in Illinois, dreaming of treading the Broadway boards. I got close, working in the Shubert theatres for several years. However, I poured champagne at the bar instead of pouring my heart out on the stage. I subsequently managed salons and spas until I eventually went back to school and realized my heart had always belonged to art history and cultural heritage.

 

I have since worked on programs and exhibitions in some of New York’s most storied institutions, including The Morgan Library & Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA, and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. I have also taught courses on art and design history, exhibition practice, and the interpretive possibilities of objects at Parsons School of Design, the New York School of Interior Design, Pratt Institute, and Sotheby’s Institute of Art.​ At the end of 2024, I founded Ann Bell Atelier, which allows my restless interdisciplinary mind to experiment and dabble in personal creative projects.

 

Today, I am the Exhibitions Curator at the New York Society Library, the oldest cultural institution in the city, where I am privileged to spend my time investigating the histories and untold stories of our collection of rare books and other treasures. Whatever I do, I am always in search of experiences that feel timeless, elegant, and human. My work is guided by a love of legacy, what is left behind, and the stories objects tell through now silent voices. 

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I also write Woman with a Baguette, a poetic notebook devoted to French culture, elegance, and everyday artfulness, a space where scholarship meets rèverie and Paris always sends its love.

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À bientôt,
Ann