News Release
Cindy Kelly, curator and interim director of Evergreen House at The Johns Hopkins University, has been appointed director of the university's historic houses and university collections. As director, Kelly will oversee operations of the university's two historic houses, Homewood House and Evergreen House, and the university's art collections. Kelly brings to Hopkins more than 20 years of curatorial and art consulting experience. Prior to her work at Evergreen, she was an independent art consultant to the Maryland Department of Recreation and Parks, the Trust for Public Land in Washington, D.C., the Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation in Baltimore, the Mayor's Advisory Committee on Art and Culture and other groups. "Members of the Homewood House Advisory Council feel very fortunate to have a person with Cindy Kelly's talents leading the university's historic houses and managing its art collections," said Ross Jones, vice president and secretary emeritus of the university and chair of the council. "We are absolutely delighted to have her engaged in this new, expanded role and we look forward to working with her." For the past two years, Kelly has been responsible for researching, developing and obtaining funding for Evergreen House's exhibitions; training volunteer guides; and developing such special projects as a lecture series on urban issues and a summer artist residency program. "Throughout Ms. Kelly's two years as curator of Evergreen House, the Foundation's trustees have been very impressed by her imagination, creativity, and skills," said James R. Garrett, president of the Evergreen House Foundation's Board of Trustees. "And when we interviewed her as part of the director search process, we were equally impressed by her passion and her vision, both for Evergreen and for Homewood House." Evergreen House, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is a magnificent Italianate structure built in the 1850s on 50 wooded acres. First built in the 1850's by the Broadbent family, Evergreen was extensively renovated and expanded between 1878 and 1928 during the residency of three generations of the Garrett family. In 1942, former Ambassador John Work Garrett bequeathed the 48-room house and its grounds to Johns Hopkins University. Ten years later, his widow, Alice Warder Garrett, established a foundation to conserve the family's collections of paintings, Asian art, sculpture, and rare books. In fulfillment of the wishes of both John and Alice Garrett, Evergreen remains open to the public for tours and for educational and cultural programs. Homewood House, a National Historic Landmark, was built beginning in 1801 as a wedding present from Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, to his son Charles Carroll of Homewood. An exhaustive restoration of the house, located on the university's Homewood campus, was completed in 1987 and the building is now considered to be one of the finest examples of Federal architecture in America. Homewood's collections of fine 18th- and 19th-century furnishings and decorations include pieces originally owned by the Carroll family.
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