Panel discussion with Jill D'Alessandro & Megan Osborne

Jill D’Alessandro joined the Denver Art Museum as director and curator of the Avenir Institute of Textile Arts and Fashion in 2023. Prior to joining the DAM, Jill served as the curator in charge of costume and textile arts at The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. During her 21-year tenure in San Francisco, D’Alessandro developed over 25 exhibitions on a diverse variety of subjects, ranging from world textile traditions to twentieth- and twenty-first century fashion design. Serving as a curator of global textile collections has greatly informed her worldview and Jill is expressively interested in the study of textile arts as a vehicle to draw connections across cultures.

Megan Osborne is the Collections Manager and Assistant Curator of the Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising at Colorado State University. She has curated many exhibitions including Walking in Beauty: Designs by Orlando Dugi, 2019 and Mr. Blackwell: Inspiration to Innovation, 2022. In addition to her curatorial work, Megan is responsible for the daily management and care of artifacts in the Avenir Museum Collection. She directs an active volunteer program and facilitates research with undergraduate and graduate students and visiting scholars. Megan will speak from the local institutional perspective of Denver's unique contribution to textile arts.