Michelle Elligott

Chief of Archives, Library, and Research Collections, The Museum of Modern Art

Michelle Elligott is Chief of Archives, Library, and Research Collections at The Museum of Modern Art. Ms. Elligott joined MoMA as a Mellon Fellow in 1995; she became Rona Roob Senior Museum Archivist in 1999. She co-directed the Museum’s widely acclaimed Exhibition History web archive project, co-edited the institution’s first self-published history, Art in Our Time: A Chronicle of The Museum of Modern Art (2004); co-curated the MoMA exhibition 1969 at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center (now MoMA PS1); and was part of the curatorial team for Abstract Expressionist New York: The Big Picture in 2010. She routinely organizes archival exhibitions. Past exhibitions include those devoted to James Lee Byars, Dada, and the history of dance and theater at MoMA. With her “Modern Artifacts” column, she is a regular contributor to the art magazine Esopus, and her book René d’Harnoncourt: The Art of Installation will be forthcoming in 2017. She has published widely, including the articles “Modern Women: A Brief History” and “Dada: A Chronology,” for MoMA; and “Schémas des origins et de l’évolution de l’art modern” for the Centre Pompidou. She has taught seminars on art archives in Havana, Caracas, and Buenos Aires, and has lectured extensively, including at the 2013 Venice Biennale, the Centre Pompidou, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan, Contemporary Greek Art Institute, Athens, Greece, and the Frick Collection. In 2005, she was a Fulbright Senior Scholar in residence at the Benaki Museum in Athens, Greece. She has been Adjunct Assistant Professor of Museum Studies at New York University. Ms. Elligott holds degrees in art history from Smith College and Hunter College, City University of New York, with additional coursework at the Université de Paris IV, Sorbonne, and the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Greece.

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