Celebrating 50 Years of Bill Koberg

Please join us in congratulating Bill Koberg, our inimitable chief of installations, on his 50th anniversary of being part of The Phillips Collection team!

From Shelly Wischhusen, former Chief Preparator:

“I was extremely lucky to have worked with Bill Koberg for 40 (1978-2018) of his now-50 years at The Phillips. He is one unique individual! He has an encyclopedic knowledge of the collection, having completed the annual inventory for decades. He has done everything from installing the artwork, to lighting the artwork, to packing and crating the artwork, as well as accompanying the work as a courier to far points of the globe. He is essential during installations for his great “eye.” He was a joy to work with, with his insane sense of humor and his singing refrains of the most annoying songs which then became “earworms” one couldn’t shake. And best of all, behind all of his vast institutional knowledge and intelligence, he is one of the kindest persons I have ever met.”

From Karen Schneider, Head Librarian:

“Bill Koberg started working at the Phillips in 1971 during the museum’s major Cézanne exhibition, when many new people were hired to guard the galleries. Elmira Bier, Duncan Phillips’s executive secretary, apparently thought that Bill would be a somewhat intimidating presence because of his height and build. Bill was initially a museum assistant and then became a preparator. He was a preparator when I started at the Phillips in 1981 when he worked with Shelly Wischhusen and a rotating cast of assistant preparators.  Over time Bill got more involved in exhibitions, working closely with curators to make suggestions about the installation of works of art as well as pulling works out of storage that had not been exhibited in a long time. His knowledge of the collection is unparalled.”