The Rockwell at 50: Reframing the Future

Erin M. Coe is the Executive Director of The Rockwell Museum, a Smithsonian Affiliate in Corning, New York. Since her appointment in 2025, she has led the development of the Museum's new strategic plan while guiding its yearlong 50th anniversary celebration in 2026. Under her leadership, The Rockwell is advancing a bold vision for its future through institutional rebranding, a comprehensive reinterpretation of its collection, major capital improvements, expanded community partnerships, and strengthened philanthropic support. She is also leading transformative projects that reimagine the Museum's public spaces and strengthen the visitor experience.

Prior to joining The Rockwell, Coe served as Director of the Palmer Museum of Art and Associate Clinical Professor in Penn State's College of Arts and Architecture. She provided transformative leadership in redefining the museum's mission, strategic priorities, and role within the University while helping lead the realization of the Palmer's new 73,000-square-foot home in the Arboretum at Penn State, designed by Allied Works. The new museum opened to the public on June 1, 2024, attracting unprecedented attendance and earning recognition from USA Today as one of the nation's best new art museums.

Committed to empowering staff and advancing institutional excellence, Coe led the development of several groundbreaking exhibitions, including MADE in PA (2024), the inaugural exhibition in the new museum, which she co-curated; Plastic Entanglements: Ecology, Aesthetics, Materials (2018); From the Rooftops: John Sloan and the Art of the New Urban Space (2019); and Global Asias: Contemporary Asian and Asian American Art from the Collections of Jordan Schnitzer and His Family Foundation (2022). Accompanied by major scholarly publications, these exhibitions explored local, national, and global perspectives while fostering interdisciplinary dialogue. During her tenure, the Palmer's permanent collection grew by 40 percent through strategic acquisitions and landmark gifts, including the John Driscoll Collection of American Drawings and the bequest of more than 200 works from the museum's namesake, Barbara Palmer. She also championed acquisitions by historically underrepresented artists and advanced initiatives that strengthened access, equity, inclusion, and belonging throughout the museum's exhibitions, collections, and organizational culture.

Coe previously served as Executive Director of The Hyde Collection, an accredited art museum and historic house in Glens Falls, New York. Earlier, as the museum's Chief Curator for fifteen years, she organized more than forty-five exhibitions, authored numerous scholarlypublications, contributed to national art journals, and secured a transformative gift of postwar modern art that led to the creation of a dedicated modern and contemporary art gallery.