Heather Ewing became Civitella Ranieri’s Executive Director in September 2024. She served on Civitella’s Advisory Council from 2016 – 2024. Before coming to Civitella, Heather was Associate Dean for Administrative Affairs at the New York Studio School and a research associate of the Smithsonian Institution Archives. She was the founding executive director of the Center for Italian Modern Art and has also worked at the Sir John Soane’s Museum in London and the John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida. She is the author of a number of books, including The Lost World of James Smithson: Science, Revolution, and the Birth of the Smithsonian; in 2021 she curated ARRIVALS at the Katonah Museum of Art, an exhibition exploring American myths and origin stories. She has been the recipient of a number of prestigious grants and fellowships, including the Helen Wallis Fellowship at the British Library, a multi-country fellowship from the Council of American Overseas Research Centers, a research grant from the British Academy, and fellowships at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, the Science History Institute, and the American Philosophical Society.