William Crow is the director of the Lehigh University Art Galleries and oversees the museum studies minor. In addition to these roles, he is a visual artist and empirical researcher, with current interests that include epistemological development in the arts and the cognitive benefits of sketching.
Prof. Crow has spoken internationally on topics related to museums, education, and digital media, and coauthored the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) publications Unbound by Place or Time: Museums and Online Learning (2009), All Together Now: Museums and Online Collaborative Learning (2010), and Teaching the Museum (2014). He was named the 2014 Eastern Region Art Museum Educator of the Year by the National Art Education Association, and has served as a panelist for the Institute of Museum and Library Services, as well as a peer reviewer for the Museum Assessment Program for AAM. He received the 2015 University Excellence in Teaching Award at Johns Hopkins University, and in 2017 he was awarded a Fulbright Global Specialist Award to conduct professional development for museum staff in South America.
Prior to his appointment at Lehigh, he was the inaugural Educator in Charge of Teaching and Learning at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He has held academic appointments at New York University, Johns Hopkins University, and The New School for Social Research.
Prof. Crow holds a BA in Romance languages and art from Wake Forest University, an MFA in painting from Hunter College of The City University of New York, an MSEd in leadership in museum education from Bank Street Graduate School of Education, and a PhD in cognitive science from Columbia University. He is also an alumnus of the Getty Leadership Institute (2006) and the Columbia University School of Business Executive Leadership Program (2016). He currently serves as the Pennsylvania state representative for the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries (AAMG).
What about your museum excites you?
Our museum is a bridge that connects campus and community. I’m most excited by the infinite possibilities that this creates for learning and meaningful connections.
What’s one thing — either industry/work-related or not — you learned in the past month?
I recently purchased an AI-powered bird feeder, so I’m learning quite a bit about all of the bird species visiting my house in Bucks County, PA. I am surrounded by woodpeckers!
What about the AAMG mission excites you?
I’m excited to meet new colleagues and share ideas about how we can maximize the impact of our work.
How do you decompress from tough work days?
Long (but slow) walks with my dog Stover–a rescue who is half Basset Hound and half SharPei.
Print or audio books?
My husband and I are in the habit of downloading the same audio book on our Kindles so that we can read and discuss, chapter by chapter. We are halfway through “The Maid” by Nita Prose.
