Lela Hersh has been involved in the arts for over 35 years as an arts administrator and works as an art advisor, curator, collection manager, appraiser, consultant, and teacher. Her academic record includes an M.F.A. in Photography from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (1983), B.A. from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque (1981), and B.S. from Old Dominion University, Norfolk (1977). She is a graduate of the Museum Management Institute (now Museum Leadership Institute), the executive development program of the Getty Leadership Institute (1991). Ms. Hersh is currently the president of Museum and Fine Arts Consulting, LLC and an accredited senior appraiser with the American Society of Appraisers (ASA) and an accredited member of the International Society of Appraisers. She is also an Executive Member of the Association of Professional Art Advisors (APAA)
Since 2003, Museum and Fine Arts Consulting has provided personalized and independent art advisory and collections management services to museums and cultural institutions, corporations, foundations, galleries, and private and corporate collectors. Ms. Hersh is a twenty-year veteran of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, where she served as the Director of Collections and Exhibitions, and later assisted MCA (2012-2013) in the same capacity. Ms. Hersh is also a Senior Lecturer in the Arts Administration and Policy degree program at The School of the Art Institute, Chicago, teaching graduate-level courses since the late 1990s, including Arts Consulting, Collection Management and The Art Object: Valuation and Authentication. Ms. Hersh is also an Adjunct Professor at Claremont Graduate University, California/
Ms. Hersh has served on several elected and appointed committees, commissions, and boards, including Library Board of Trustees, Highland Park (2012- 2018, Secretary 2013-2015), Commissioner, Cultural Arts Commission, Highland Park (2006-2011, Chair 2010 - 2011), Conservation Committee, City of Chicago (2005), Board Member, American Association of Museums/later American Alliance of Museums (AAM) (1993-1995), Secretary, Midwest Museums Conference (1992-1994), Chair, Legislation Committee and Council Member, Midwest Museums Conference (1990-1992), International Liaison, Registrars Committee, AAM (1990-1992) and Secretary-Treasurer, Midwest Registrars Committee (1989-1990). In addition, she has served in an advisory capacity for numerous councils and programs including Advisory Panelist, Ohio Arts Council, Operating Support (2001), Advisory Board, Encyclopedia of 20th–Century Photography, 2000 (published Routledge, 2006), Surveyor, Museum Assessment Program, AAM (1995-2000), Reviewer, Institute of Museum and Library Services, General Operating Grants (1995-1999) and Reviewer, Technical Information Services, AAM (1994). She is currently a member of ASA’s Board of Examiners and on their Board of Governors.
Ms. Hersh has published work in several areas including selected artist entries, Collection Catalogue, Volume II, by Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2002), Objects of Appraisal: Legal and Ethical Issues, Museum News with Ildiko DeAngelis (2001), and selected artist biographies, Art in Chicago, 1945-1995, published by Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (1997). She also was a faculty participant at ALI-ABA Course of Study, Artist’s Commission Contracts, Chicago (1998). Selected curatorial projects include Evanston Art Center’s 23rd Evanston + Vicinity Biennial (2016), Sculpture Invasion II, Koehnline Museum of Art, Des Plaines, Illinois, (2010) and Bright, a group exhibition, I space, Chicago Gallery of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (2007). She also wrote the Appraisal chapter of AAM’s sixth edition of Museum Registration published by Rowman & Littlefield Published in 2020.
Ms. Hersh was a continuous presence at AAM conferences on various panels between 1988 and 1997, including The Artist and the Museum II (with Jim Dine), Atlanta (1997), Coping with Non-Traditional Materials in Exhibitions & Collections, Minneapolis (1996), The Artist and the Museum (with Frank Stella), Fort Worth (1993) and Documentation Strategies, Pittsburgh (1988). She spoke at the ASA International Conference on the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990: A Primer (2008), and the inaugural conference of the Association of Registrars and Collections Specialists (ARCS) in Chicago (2013) on the subject What’s Fair about Fair Market Value? She also presented Game of Clones: Unmasking the Forger, ARCS, New Orleans (2015).