Gail Enid Gelburd, PhD, is an artist, writer, academic and art historian celebrating more than 45 years of creating and curating. Some of her earliest memories are of her father taking her to museums and telling her that with hard work, she could become whatever she wanted to be. Dr. Gelburd took his words to heart, and she began her journey in 1974 with a Bachelor of Arts from Queens College of the City University of New York, followed by a Master of Arts from the Ohio State University in 1977. She started working in the arts shortly after, being named director of the Phoenix Gallery in New York City in 1976 and curator of the Morris Museum from 1978 until 1980.
Dr. Gelburd’s teaching career began in the late 1970s with lecturer positions with the Museum of Modern Art and the School of Visual Arts in New York City, departing in 1980. She became the director of the Hofstra Museum in 1980, a role she would hold for the next decade, and an associate professor at Hofstra University in 1981, where she continues to teach. While teaching at Hofstra University, Dr. Gelburd returned to the City University of New York to continue her education, earning a Master of Public Health in 1986 and her Doctor of Philosophy in 1988. Dr. Gelburd served as director of the Hofstra University museum studies program from 1983 until 1992, and has taken on a variety of community roles supporting the arts, including work as a member of the Sea Cliff Landmarks Association, where she has served since 1988. In 2000, Dr. Gelburd was made a professor at Easter Connecticut State University, where she taught until 2020 and served as chair of the department of art and art history from 2008 until 2012.
Throughout her career, Dr. Gelburd has held leadership roles in numerous organizations promoting art as a vehicle for environmental and intercultural understanding. She is the former director of the Council for Creative Projects, a former member of the art steering committee of the Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders and the board of directors of Artists Representing Environmental Art, and was elected to the Otis Historic Commission in 2020. She has published dozens of papers and multiple volumes of history, theory, and criticism, with recent works including “Ajiaco: Strings of the Cuban Soul” in 2010, and “Cuba and the Art of Trading with the Enemy” in 2009, and she looks forward to writing histories of several female artists and writers in the coming years.
Dr. Gelburd’s work deals with her interests in the intersection of ecology, culture and the ineffable, and has been exhibited internationally in dozens of group and solo shows across the United States and the world. A grantee of the National Education Association, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and several others, she has been presented with a 2008 Teaching Excellence Award and was the recipient of the prestigious 2019 Skopelos Foundation for the Arts residency and fellowship in Greece. When not focused on her work, Dr. Gelburd enjoys the outdoors and is an avid skier and equestrian.