Who We Are: Meet Our Docents

Inge Laino

Inge is a Belgian-American historian and translator who has lived in Paris for the past nine years. After her degree in classics and art history, she served in the US Peace Corps in Benin, West Africa. Since moving to France, Inge has worked both as an instructor at the American University of Paris and guide at the Madeleine basilica in Vézelay, Burgundy, where she was also a resident translator for historical texts on monasticism in medieval Europe. Inge has recently earned a masters degree in linguistics and translation at the Sorbonne’s l'Ecole Supérieure d'Interprètes et de Traducteurs. In addition to her role as Director of Paris Muse, she leads tours at Notre Dame, Cluny, the Louvre, and the Orangerie.

Rachel Helfand

Originally a Los Angeleno, Rachel became a permanent ex-patriot in 2004 when she moved to London to complete her MA degree in Art History at Richmond University. After working in the exhibitions department at the Victoria and Albert Museum and in sales at one of London’s foremost contemporary art galleries, Victoria Miro Gallery, she moved to Paris to settle permanently. Leading programs for Paris Muse has been a welcome return to the origin of her art historical passion, inside the heart of France’s most celebrated museums.

Rachel joined Paris Muse in 2010, and was recently appointed Associate Director and Head of Marketing. She helps to develop new programs, while spreading the word about the outstanding tours Paris Muse offers. In addition she continues to teach courses on the art market at the American University in Paris. When not musing about art she can also be found practicing photography and doting on her lovely French Bulldog.

Pamela Warner

Pamela divides her time between Paris and Providence, RI, where she is professor of modern art history at the University of Rhode Island: “It's always a pleasure to come back to Paris and start giving tours again. I wish all my students were as enthusiastic as my Paris Musers!"

Pamela completed her PhD at the University of Delaware in 2005. She wrote her dissertation on two 19th-century French art critics and Paris-o-philes, the Goncourt brothers: “I love telling stories: stories in the art, and stories about the art. That’s probably why I chose to focus my academic research on art critics--the people who told the stories about art in the past.”

Pamela’s husband is a Swiss-French artist who has helped open her eyes to the ways artists work: “I hope to let some of this passion shine through in my teaching and guiding.”

Barbara Montefalcone

Born in Italy as daughter to two French teachers, Barbara was introduced to French culture at an early age. She visited Paris for the first time when she was eleven and dreamt about living in the city one day. After an BA in foreign literatures and art in Italy and an M.A. and PhD at the University of Lyon (France) where she wrote a thesis on American poetry and art, Barbara was finally able to move to her beloved city. She is interested in both art and literature and specializes in the connections between the two, through the tradition of artists’ books.

When she is not working as a Paris Muse docent, Barbara teaches American literature at a French university and art history at Parsons Paris School of Art and Design. She also works as an independent author for magazines and exhibition catalogues in both France and Italy. Barbara is the author of two books of short stories in Italian. She loves sharing her passion for art and having long walks in the Louvre, particularly through the Italian Renaissance galleries where she feels especially at home.

Mary Johnson

Born and raised in Africa, Mary has traveled extensively throughout the world. Her research on the Maison de Verre, a modern architectural icon in the 7th arrondissement, brought her back to Paris, where she had once studied as an exchange student from Georgia Tech.

As she continues work on her dissertation, Mary also serves as docent for the Maison de Verre, and Program Director for the School of Architecture and Planning at The Catholic University of America. She is pursuing her PhD in Architectural Representation and Education at the Washington-Alexandria Architecture Consortium of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. When not teaching and leading tours for Paris Muse, Mary enjoys hanging out with her two teenage daughters.

Marya Osucha

Hailing from northern California, Marya relocated to Paris in 2008, having been indelibly charmed by its winding narrow streets, countless artistic treasures, and flavorful macarons. She holds a BA in Visual Culture and an MA in Art History, both from the University of California at Davis. While completing her graduate work she discovered a passion for teaching and the satisfaction that comes with awakening artistic insight in others. Today she is delighted to share that passion with travelers from around the world, using the original artworks as a source of inspiration!

Since arriving in Paris her experiences of the art world have been wide and varied: from the industrial climes of an artist’s Montparnasse studio, to chic vernissages of experimental artists, and finally to the inspiring masterpieces in the galleries of the Louvre. When not musing on the dynamism of Michelangelo’s Captives she can be found writing exhibition reviews, studying French language at the Sorbonne, or picnicking in one of Paris’ amazing gardens.

Caty Telfair

Caty came to Paris in 2009 to conduct research for her PhD dissertation about late nineteenth-century French Symbolist portraiture. She received her MA in Art History from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and then worked in the Museum Education department at the Art Institute of Chicago itself, where she discovered the great joy of introducing people to the marvels and mysteries of a museum's collection. She is now a PhD candidate at the University of California at Berkeley, and considers herself singularly lucky to be able to claim Paris and San Francisco as her two homes.

Miranda Westwood

Originally from London, Miranda has been living in Paris on and off for the past 10 years. She has a BA Honours in Fine Art and an MA in Museum Studies from the University of Leicester. A stint running the lectures programme at the Royal Institute of British Architects in London was followed by a permanent move to Paris in 2005.

Previously a guide at the architecture galleries of the V&A, London, and the Fondation Cartier in Paris, Miranda’s interests are diverse and include 19th and 20th century art and contemporary architecture. When not leading tours for Paris Muse, Miranda can be found either researching articles for the UK architectural press or building sandcastles with her two young sons, in some of Paris’s many wonderful parks and gardens.

Jennifer Donnelly

Based in Paris for over a decade, Jennifer now divides her time between the City of Light and the Swiss Alps. Her passion for art was stoked while growing up in the same Pennsylvania countryside captured in the paintings by Andrew Wyeth. Her masters and doctoral work at the École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and the Université de Paris-VII focused on the history of museums.

‘For me,’ Jennifer says, ‘a museum is basically a collection of stories, and sharing these with people is endlessly fascinating.’ Her love for storytelling comes through in her fiction writing, which often incorporates works of art as themes and characters. Her undergraduate study of the classics, philosophy and literature also strongly colors her approach to art. She frequently publishes and presents her scholarly work and is active in several nonprofit arts organisations. When not haunting galleries and libraries Jennifer is often found wandering up or down mountain slopes.

Patrick O'Connor

Patrick divides his time between Paris and New York, academia and professional practice as an architect. He received his Masters degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation. When in New York, Patrick combines his work for an award-winning architectural practice, with teaching at Columbia University’s GSAPP teaching architectural design studio.

While in Paris, Patrick thoroughly enjoys the lifestyle, and particularly the city’s food, wine, and chocolate! When not guiding architectural history walks for Paris Muse he spends his time as Director of the Columbia University Architecture Program in Paris.

Elisa Foster

Elisa began her graduate studies focusing on Spain but found herself on a reverse pilgrimage from Santiago de Compostela, wandering over the Pyrenees, where she became enamored with the cathedrals of France.
Raised in Texas, she moved to Paris for dissertation research. She is a Ph.D. candidate in the History of Art and Architecture at Brown University where she focuses on late medieval and early renaissance French art and architecture. Elisa credits her love of art history to her many childhood visits to Europe, and especially to Paris.

Elisa is passionate about teaching. She holds a Master’s in Teaching from Simmons College and has taught art history at Southern Methodist University and The University of Texas at Arlington. She loves teaching in museums, and has worked as a graduate intern at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She is thrilled to share her interest and enthusiasm for the visual arts in the great museums of Paris, where she gives tours at the Musée Cluny, Notre-Dame, and the Louvre.

In addition to giving tours for Paris Muse, Elisa enjoys exploring the cafés of Paris, which she balances out with her love for Bikram yoga.

Holly Barton

Holly divides her time between France and England, where she has plenty of opportunities to combine her interests and studies with work she loves. When in France, as well as leading tours for Paris Muse, Holly teaches at a French university and at Parsons Paris School of Art and Design. She is also enrolled on a PhD programme at the University of Reading in the UK, where she is researching the French and British artwork produced on the Western Front during the First World War.

Min Lee

Min was born in Seoul, raised in Philadelphia, and worked in Oregon and Chicago before moving to Paris in 2007. She holds a BA in urban studies and in art and architectural history, an MA in art history and is working on a dual-doctoral degree in Chicago and Paris in architectural history and sociology. Her research on the relationship between cartography and architecture has received funding from the American, French, and German governments. While her research and teaching specializations are modern and contemporary architecture, her true architectural love is ancient Greece.

Her approach to architecture focuses on urban and social contexts: buildings should not be studied in isolation but through its relationship to its surroundings both in time and in space. For this reason, Paris is an ideal city with its many layers of history and its life as a contemporary city, and she loves to guide visitors to see its profound complexity. When not teaching or writing, Min can be found on a plane, train, boat, car, bike, or even a horse, exploring cities and architectural sites all over the world.

Katie Hornstein

Originally from California, Katie Hornstein devised a career-path to satisfy her chronic Francophilia. As an undergraduate at the University of California Berkeley, Katie majored in Art History and French, and studied abroad in Lyon, France for a year. After graduating, she returned to France to teach English at a French high school and intern at the Centre Pompidou. She headed back to the United States in 2003 to begin a PhD at the University of Michigan which eventually allowed her to move back to Paris for dissertation research on a Fulbright Fellowship. After defending her dissertation on nineteenth-century French representations of war in 2010, Katie received a post-doctoral fellowship. When not touring, she spends her time revising her doctoral thesis into a book, and eating her way through Paris.

Pascale Rihouet

Pascale is a born and bred Parisienne. She graduated from Brown University with a PhD in Art History in 2008. Prior to earning her doctorate degree, she worked as a professional tour guide in Parisian museums and monuments for ten years. Pascale is now a professor at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island. She divides her time between Providence and Paris, spending about four months each year researching in France. She is passionate about Italian art, biking, cinema, and yoga.

Dennis Prior

Dennis is a young Australian architect who divides his time between academia and professional practice. Currently living in Paris he can be found enjoying the delights (and vices) of the city of light. When not teaching or guiding architectural history walks for Paris Muse (“Historic Heart of Paris” and “Explaining Eiffel”) he is working on perfecting his French at the Sorbonne.

Dennis was educated primarily at The University of Melbourne, but also studied at the Technische Universiteit Delft in The Netherlands. He graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture receiving the prize for Architectural Design. He also holds a Bachelor of Planning and Design. Dennis has worked in a number of successful and award-winning architectural practices, while also holding teaching and research positions at The University of Melbourne and Monash University. He has been a guest critic at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Dennis has a passion for discussing and debating architecture and particularly enjoys exploring the wider contexts within which design operates.

Mary Dailey Desmarais

Born and raised in New York City, Mary Dailey has been living in Paris for the past year while working on her dissertation on Claude Monet. She first came to Paris as a college student and fast immersed herself in the city’s vibrant culture and rich history, working at the Musée Rodin while studying transatlantic exchange between early twentieth-century French and American writers and artists. After completing her BA at Stanford, she went on to pursue a Master’s degree in Art History at Williams College where she wrote her thesis on Mary Cassatt.

In the course of her career she has worked in numerous museums in America and Europe including The Prado, The Clark Art Institute, The Yale University Art Gallery and MoMA. She is now a PhD candidate in Art History at Yale University. When not working as a Paris Muse docent or conducting research for her dissertation, she is usually found writing articles and exhibition reviews for art publications, listening to live music, or exploring on her bicycle.

Jason Vrooman

Raised in New York State’s beautiful Thousand Islands region—famous for its salad dressing and sunsets!—Jason knew from a young age that he wanted to visit France. One trip led to several, including an undergraduate semester spent living in Paris. On weekly visits to the city’s museums, Jason discovered his passion for art. He is now pursuing a Ph.D. in art history at New York University, where he studies representations of men in late nineteenth-century French art. His research for the project has led him once more to the City of Light.

Jason has worked in the curatorial and education departments of numerous museums, including the New-York Historical Society and the National Gallery of Art, Washington. He has previously taught at NYU and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and is happy to be spending so much time in Paris’s museums yet again, sharing their treasures with Paris Muse clients.

When not researching his dissertation or encouraging others to talk about “what’s going on in this picture,” Jason enjoys scouring Paris for the best pastries and chocolat chaud, and plotting similar “research trips” to other European cities.

Amanda Dennis

For Amanda, Paris seems the perfect place to put the finishing touches on her doctoral dissertation, which involves Cezanne, as well as the minimalist, ghostly images of Samuel Beckett’s experimental plays for television. Since she’s fascinated by the kinships between word and image, avant-garde experimentation and tried-and-true tradition, she’s especially pleased to be giving tours in the city’s visually stunning, image-rich museums. (She heartily recommends the truffle-oil “macaron” from Pierre Hermé in the rue Bonaparte, as another beautiful blend between experimentation and tradition). Having lived in Philadelphia, Princeton, Berlin, Thailand, England, Boston and San Francisco, she’s able to say decisively that the City of Light is incomparable.

Amanda holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature from Princeton University, and an M.Phil in European Literature and Culture from the University of Cambridge, where she was awarded the Gates Scholarship in 2006 and 2007. She is working to complete her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. In addition to her studies, she hopes to take up west African dance as an occasional alternative to runs along the Seine and to Vinyasa yoga.

Jessica Fripp

As an art history major at the University of California, San Diego, Jessica came to France to spend an undergraduate year in Bordeaux. After several summers in Paris, she was able to move to the city full-time in 2009. Before that, she earned an MA in art history from Williams College. She has also worked in the Education Departments of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the Williams College Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC and MassMoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts, giving tours and developing programs for visitors of all ages. Jessica is currently a PhD student at the Universtiy of Michigan writing a dissertation on the role of portraiture in the social lives of artists in eighteenth-century France. When not thinking about portraits, teaching for the University of Michigan study abroad program in Paris or giving tours for Paris Muse, Jessica spends her time looking for the best tarte au citron in Paris, watching rugby, and exploring the French music scene.

Alexandra Lawson

Alexandra is originally from Washington, DC where she spent five years as a museum educator at the National Gallery of Art and Smithsonian museums. After completing her BA in Art History and French, she returned to Paris in 2009 to pursue an MA in museum studies. Since her first taste of the city in 2002 as an exchange student, Paris has been her favorite vacation destination. Now, it’s a place to call home.

Alexandra enjoys introducing the Louvre and its many treasures to curious visitors. "What I love about leading tours is that an open dialogue unfolds naturally. When we share ideas and reactions to each painting and sculpture, everyone involved is enriched from the experience in unexpected ways." While not musing at the Louvre or other Parisian museums, Alexandra can be found strolling along Canal Saint-Martin or sampling the decadent macaroons at Pierre Hermé.

 E-mail this page
 Printer-friendly page

 

 

Subscribe to the free "Quoi de Neuf?" e-mail newsletter to receive the latest Paris art news.