Matthew A. Thurlow

Richard Hampton Jenrette Foundation
Keynote Speaker

Friday, March 5               

6:00 PM Keynote Address

Fly, Swim, Pounce: American Classical Furniture from the Schrimsher Collection

 

Matthew A. Thurlow is the Executive Director of the Decorative Arts Trust, a non-profit national membership organization that promotes and fosters the appreciation and study of the decorative arts through domestic and international programming, collaborations and partnerships with museums and preservation organizations, and underwriting internships, research grants, and scholarships for students and professionals in the academic and museum communities. 

 

Prior to heading the Trust, Matt served as Assistant Director of Development for Major Gifts and Planned Giving at Winterthur; and Research Associate and Installations Coordinator in the American Wing at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Matt holds graduate degrees from the University of Delaware's Winterthur Program in Early American Culture and the College of William & Mary in archaeology and an undergraduate degree from Washington & Lee University. 

 

In the distant past, he lectured widely on topics relating to late-18th and early-19th-century furniture. Matt has published articles in American Furniture, The Magazine Antiques, and Antiques & Fine Arts. He served as co-editor and co-author for American Classical Furniture 1810-40: Regional Identities in the Schrimsher Collection (2025), was a contributing author to Handwork: Handcrafted Objects that Made America (2026), and co-authored the Metropolitan's exhibition catalogue Duncan Phyfe: Master Cabinetmaker in New York (2011). Matt has served on several boards and advisory committees in the field, including the Charleston Symposium.