Stephen Harrison is responsible for a diverse collection of ceramics, glass, metalwork, and furniture representing European, American, and Asian export material from 1500 to the present. He joined the museum in 2005 and has worked on numerous projects, including the complete redesign and reinstallation of the museum’s decorative arts collection.

His award-winning exhibition Artistic Luxury: Fabergé, Tiffany, Lalique garnered international critical acclaim, including the 2009 Robert C. Smith Award from the Decorative Arts Society in America.

Before coming to Cleveland, Harrison was the curator of decorative arts at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, where he oversaw the complete reinstallation of the High’s collection of American and European decorative arts while simultaneously expanding its 20th-century holdings. He has also held curatorial positions in New Orleans and Dallas.

Harrison is a graduate of the University of Virginia, where he was a Jefferson Scholar. He earned an MS in historic preservation from the University of Pennsylvania and an MA in early American material culture from the Winterthur Museum Program at the University of Delaware.