D’Ambrosio Succeeds Elliott As NYSHA President

By JIM KEVLIN : COOPERSTOWN

D. Stephen Elliott, a calm, diplomatic presence on the helm of the New York State Historical Association for almost six years, will join the Minnesota Historical Society as director & CEO, effective Friday, April 1.
His replacement locally is Vice President & Chief Curator Paul D’Ambrosio, a member of NYSHA’s curatorial staff for 26 years, who during Elliott’s tenure has organized block-buster centerpiece exhibits.
NYSHA president & CEO, the position in question, is also president of The Farmer’s Museum.
With a combination of content and marketing, Steve Elliott’s last season as NYSHA president saw a 20 percent increase in revenues at the turnstile, despite the economic downturn.
Part of that increase was no doubt D’Ambrosio’s doing as well:  His “John Singer Sargent: Portraits in Praise of Women,” was a critical success and a crowd-pleaser as well.
The MHS announced Elliott’s hiring at mid-morning Monday, March 28, about the time an all-staff meeting to announce the transition was breaking up in The Fenimore Art Museum’s auditorium.
Locally, D’Ambrosio said, “Steve is leaving things in tip-top shape, and for that I’m very grateful.”  Because of his long tenure and with “a good season in place,” he is hoping for “a very smooth transition.”
Elliott was in St. Paul, Minn., that day, and could not immediately be reached for comment.  However, NYSHA’s official announcement had him praising his “very capable and dedicated staffs,” adding, “I look forward to applying what I have learned from my colleagues in Cooperstown to my forthcoming work with another of America’s premier history institutions.”
Elliott’s wife, Diane, is executive director at Hyde Hall, the National Historic Landmark mansion on Otsego Lake, so that position likely is being vacated as well.
As VP and chief curator since 1998, D’Ambrosio oversaw preparation of publications – Richard Duncan’s three photo books among them – the collections and acquisitions.
He also assembled notable cornerstone exhibits for NYSHA’s summer season, including “Grandma Moses: Grandmother to the Nation,” in 2006; “America’s Rome” in 2009, tracing the European roots of the year’s “Prendergast to Pollock,” opening Memorial Day weekend.
An adjunct professor at the Cooperstown Graduate Program, he is also an expert on American folk art and author of “Ralph Fasanella’s America” and numerous catalogs and articles. With a B.A. from SUNY Cortland and Ph.D. from Boston University, D’Ambrosio received his master’s from the CGP.
He resides in New Hartford with wife Anna, assistant director of the Munson Williams Proctor Art Institute’s museum, and their children.
Elliott came to NYSHA in 2005 from Virginia, where he was executive director of the First Freedom Center in Richmond.  He was with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation for 28 years, rising to vice president of education, administration and planning.
He is currently chair of the American Association of State and Local History and the vice president of the Museum Association of New York.
Elliott follows Michael J. Fox, who became the Society’s director when long-time director Nina Archabal retired in January 2011; Fox, a long-time deputy director, is retiring at the end of May.