The Artist Sees Differently: Shelly Wischhusen

SHELLY WISCHHUSEN, chief preparator

Chief Preparator Shelly Wischhusen in her Office. Photo: Rolf Rykken

Were you an artist before you started to work at the Phillips, and how did you learn about the Phillips?

I have always been an artist – since I was little!  I was an art major in high school; I received my BFA in drawing and painting from the University of Georgia and my MFA in painting from The George Washington University here in D.C. I first learned of The Phillips Collection when my (University of Georgia) painting teachers did a spring-break field trip (in 1973) with some of the painting students up to Washington, D.C.  I had never been to D.C., and the first stop was the National Gallery of Art and then the Phillips.  After we saw all the beautiful works up at The Phillips Collection, I thought then and there, “I would like to work here some day.”

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