Brunk, Gordon, and Rivas Pérez Join Board of Governors

The Decorative Arts Trust welcomes Lauren Brunk, John Stuart Gordon, and Jorge F. Rivas Pérez to the Board of Governors. 

Lauren Brunk is a principal and auctioneer at Brunk Auctions in Asheville, NC, where she also catalogs southern paintings and folk art, acts as liaison with nonprofit institutions, and coordinates sponsorships and benefits. Lauren’s fine art and auction experience began in 1991 at the Bert Gallery in Providence, RI. She previously worked for the Americana Department at Sotheby’s and the New Media Department at Christie’s. She has been curator for significant Americana and paintings collections, including the Johnson Collection of Southern paintings in Spartanburg, SC, and a private New York collection. She has published articles on American paintings in The Magazine ANTIQUES, Antiques and The Arts Weekly, and other periodicals. She received her MA from the University of Delaware’s Winterthur Program in Early American Culture. Lauren is looking forward to becoming more involved in the Trust’s efforts to bring the decorative arts community together and to support scholarship that keeps the next generation of collectors, scholars, and seekers engaged. She plans to meet new people, go to new places, have fun, and “preach the gospel” of the decorative arts and the importance of understanding who we are by looking at the stuff we have.

John Stuart Gordon, PhD is the Benjamin Attmore Hewitt Curator of American Decorative Arts at the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, CT, where he has worked since 2006. Raised in San Francisco, he left the Bay Area to attend Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY. John received an MA from the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture and a PhD from Boston University. His exhibitions for the Yale University Art Gallery include The 6 Architect’s Table: Swid Powell and Postmodern Design (2007–08), A Nation Reflected: Stories in American Glass (2019), and Gold in America: Artistry, Memory, Power (2022). His publications include A Modern World: American Design from the Yale University Art Gallery, 1920–1950 and American Glass: The Collections at Yale as well as essays in John La Farge’s Second Paradise: Voyages in the South Seas, 1890–1891 (Yale Press), Postmodern Design Complete (Thames and Hudson), A Dark, A Light, A Bright: The Designs of Dorothy Liebes (Cooper Hewitt), and numerous articles. In addition to his curatorial projects, he teaches a survey of American silver at Yale University. He is on the Board of Governors of the Elizabethan Club of Yale University, on the art committee of the Century Association, acting president of the New York Silver Society, and treasurer of the Walpole Society. John is inspired by the breadth of the Trust’s audience and the organization’s potential to expand the range of materials and ideas it explores.

Jorge F. Rivas Pérez, PhD is the Frederick and Jan Mayer Curator of Latin American Art and department head at the Denver Art Museum in Denver, CO. He previously served as the curator of Spanish Colonial art at the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros in Venezuela, and as the associate curator of Latin American art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Since joining the Denver Art Museum in 2016, Rivas Pérez has focused on reimagining the Latin American art department, reinstalling the permanent collection galleries, and strengthening the acquisitions program of the department. Under his leadership, the department has strengthened historic Latin American art holdings and widened the breadth of its renowned collections expanding into modern and contemporary art from the region. His recent curatorial projects at the museum include ReVisión: Art in the Americas, The Light Show, and the forthcoming The Skeletal World of José Guadalupe Posada and Have a Seat: Mexican Chair Design Today. He is the Latin American art editor and organizer of the Mayer Center Symposium program and publications and has contributed essays to publications on a wide range of Latin American art, design, decorative arts, architecture, and material culture topics. He was born in Caracas, Venezuela, and received a MA from the University of Florence, Italy, and a MA and PhD from the Bard Graduate Center in New York City. Jorge is driven to amplify the voices and contributions of diverse communities and to enrich the Trust’s cultural impact by promoting a more inclusive and expansive understanding of the arts.

The Trust extends sincerest gratitude to Nonie Gadsden, Ralph Harvard, and Susan Stein for their years of service as their Board terms conclude. Each will remain involved with the Board in an ex-officio capacity and continue to support the Trust’s initiatives and mission.

For more information about the Decorative Arts Trust’s leadership, see the list of Officers and Governors.