Jennifer Thompson Named Deputy Director of Collections and Exhibitions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

The Philadelphia Museum of Art has appointed Jennifer Thompson as Deputy Director of Collections and Exhibitions, overseeing the museum’s Registration, Installations and Packing, Exhibition Planning, and Photography departments. Jennifer Thompson started the role July 1, moving into senior leadership after 25 years at the museum.

Twenty-Five Years at the PMA

Jennifer Thompson joined the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2001 as a research assistant and curatorial fellow, working her way to Associate Curator of European Painting and Curator of the Rodin Museum from 2008 to 2015. She went on to serve as the Gloria and Jack Drosdick Curator of European Painting & Sculpture, Curator of the John G. Johnson Collection, and Department Head from 2015 to 2026, most recently holding the title of Gisela and Dennis Alter Curator of European Painting. In that role, Jennifer Thompson has been responsible for stewarding more than 1,200 Italian, Dutch, Netherlandish, and French paintings assembled by Philadelphia lawyer John G. Johnson and bequeathed to the city in 1917.

In June, Jennifer Thompson oversaw the opening of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers: A Symphony in Blue and Yellow, bringing together two of Vincent van Gogh’s sunflower paintings — one on loan from the National Gallery, London, the other from the museum’s own collection — on view through October 11. “Jennifer Thompson brings the curatorial expertise and essential perspective required as we envision the future of the museum together,” said Daniel Weiss, George D. Widener Director and CEO. “It is a privilege to welcome Thompson to the senior leadership team at this pivotal moment in the institution’s history.”

A Curatorial Record Built on Impressionism and the Johnson Collection

Jennifer Thompson has published widely on Impressionism and the history of collecting, and organized a genuinely substantial run of exhibitions: Mary Cassatt at Work, which traveled from the PMA to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Honolulu Museum of Art in 2024–25; The Impressionist’s Eye (2019); Old Masters Now: Celebrating the Johnson Collection (2017); Discovering the Impressionists: Paul Durand-Ruel and the New Painting, which traveled to the PMA from the Musée d’Orsay and the National Gallery, London in 2014–15; Van Gogh Up Close, which traveled to the National Gallery of Canada in 2012; and Late Renoir, which traveled to the PMA from the Grand Palais and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2009–10.

Jennifer Thompson earned her M.A. in Art History and Medieval History and her Ph.D. in Art History at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. A curator who has spent a quarter century building the institution’s program from the inside is now responsible for the operational machinery behind every exhibition the museum mounts — a genuinely fitting next step, and one worth watching as the PMA continues shaping what comes after this summer’s Van Gogh moment.