Staff

Steven Matijcio comes to the KMA with a wealth of curatorial and administrative experience and a solid track record of significant engagement with contemporary art and artists at a global level. Prior to his position at the Blaffer Museum, Matijcio served as curator at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, Ohio (2013-2019) and the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, North Carolina (2008-2013). He previously held positions in a number of important galleries and museums including the Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, Winnipeg; Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto; Art Gallery of Ontario; and National Gallery of Canada. He was chosen from an international pool of candidates in 2011 to participate in curatorial residencies in Gwangju, South Korea and Berlin, Germany; named artistic director of the 2012 edition of the Narracje Festival in Gdansk, Poland; and more recently was chosen as commissaire (artistic director) of Manif d’art—the Quebec City Biennial. He has lectured on theory and criticism at the University of Manitoba, written for numerous catalogs and journals (including the Guide to the 27th Sao Paulo Bienal), and was commissioned in 2003 by the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation to curate one of its first online exhibitions. Matijcio holds a master’s degree from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, New York and bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto. Steven Matijcio begins his duties at the KMA in late February.

Chelsea joined the KMA staff as a Visitor Services Representative in April of 2017. She was promoted to Volunteer Coordinator in July of 2018 and then again to Administrative Coordinator for Development in April 2022. She graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2008 from the University of Alabama with a concentration in Sculpture and a minor in Printmaking. During her time there she was awarded the Arts & Sciences Outstanding Sophomore and became a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and the Golden Key Honor Society.

Lori Calvert joined the KMA as Director of Development in August 2019 after serving as Director of Stewardship & Donor Relations at the University of Tennessee Medical Center and UT Graduate School of Medicine since 2015. At UTMC, she served as the organization’s strategic leader for donor relations, stewardship, advancement-related communications, and special event programs. Prior to that, she served as the Director of Development Programs at the University of Tennessee Foundation from 2009-2015 where she was responsible for major donor board management, special events, stewardship, and donor relations.

Margo Clark joined the museum in 2000 bringing with her more than 11 years experience in non-profit membership, special events, and fundraising. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Communications from the University of Tennessee. During her career at KMA, Clark has written numerous successful federal, state and local grants, including four recent NEA grants. She also serves as a visual arts panelist for the Tennessee Arts Commission.

Maggie Meyers joined the KMA in 2013 as the development administrator. Meyers comes to the museum with over 18 years of development and event experience in the non-profit sector, the last seven of which were with Emerald Youth Foundation. A Knoxville native, she has a Bachelor’s Degree in Mass Communications with an emphasis in public relations and advertising, from Carson-Newman University.

Lilly Saywitz (b.1994 IL) is a painter and printmaking currently living and working in Knoxville, TN. She received her Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Tennessee and her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Boston University. She was a 2021 Artist in Residence at Zaratan Art Contemporary in Lisbon, Portugal and the recipient of the Marco Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies Graduate Fellowship.

Her recent exhibitions include The University of Tennessee (Knoxville, TN), East Tennessee State University (Johnson City, TN), Milcon Gallery (Boston, MA), ZG Gallery (Chicago, IL), The University of Arkansas (Fayetteville, ARK), and Babson College (Wellesley, MA).

Saywitz’s work investigates abstraction as a form of empathetic language and uses oil paint and monotype to develop an ever evolving lexicon of mark making. She acts as an interlocutor between what is seen and what is said. Her extended practice includes an active membership at Relay Ridge, an artist run printshop and gallery space, and the development of educational programming at the Knoxville Museum of Art.