Office of the Director Records, Marc Wilson Records

Marc Fraser Wilson was born in Akron, Ohio on September 12, 1941. In 1959, he graduated from Berea High School in Berea, Ohio. Subsequently, Wilson earned a bachelor’s degree in European History from Yale University in 1963. During the next academic year, Wilson enrolled at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland and took graduate courses in art history. It was here that he first became acquainted with Asian art when he took courses taught by Sherman Lee, Director of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Lee also introduced Wilson to museum work when he secured him a short-term job at the Cleveland Museum as an assistant in the Department of Prints and Drawings. Wilson then returned to Yale and earned a master’s degree in Art History with a concentration in Chinese Studies and Asian Art in 1967. After graduation, he was appointed to work with Laurence Sickman at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art under a two-year curatorial training grant from the Ford Foundation. Another Ford Foundation grant followed and allowed Wilson to work for nearly two years as a translator and project coordinator at the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan, as well as to travel to Hong Kong and Japan. At the invitation of Sickman, Wilson returned to Nelson-Atkins in 1971 to become the Associate Curator of Asian Art. He was promoted to Curator in 1973. After Director Ralph Coe went on sabbatical in early 1982, Wilson was appointed Interim Director. Coe officially resigned a few months later, and, after an exhaustive search for his replacement, Wilson proved to be the best candidate and was named Director in December 1982. He also continued as Curator until 1984. Marc Wilson retired from the directorship of the Museum in 2010.