The Book of Esther in the Age of Rembrandt is an art exhibit that has brought much unexpected visibility to Queen Esther—the heroine of the Purim story. This exhibit—co-organized by the Jewish Museum, New York, and the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, and exhibited this fall at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum—highlights the significant impact Esther had and how her heroism was portrayed in artworks from the Netherlands in the 1600s.
The leading thinkers behind this acclaimed show are coming together at The Vilna to talk about the show, Esther, and what this all means.
In-depth panel conversation between Diana Greenwald of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; Michele Frederick of the North Carolina Museum of Art; and Abigail Rapoport of The Jewish Museum; with moderation from The Vilna's Managing Director of Strategy and Impact, Laura Mandel.
Image credit: Jan Lievens (Dutch, 1607–1674), The Feast of Esther, about 1625. Oil on canvas. North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh. Purchased with funds from the State of North Carolina, 1952
Diana Greenwald
Diana Seave Greenwald is an art historian and economic historian, who is currently William and Lia Poorvu Curator of the Collection at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. An expert in nineteenth-century American and French art, she has curated eight exhibitions during her tenure at the Gardner and edited four exhibition catalogs. These include Allan Rohan Crite: Urban Glory (2025), Manet: A Model Family (2024), and Betye Saar: Heart of a Wanderer (2023). She is also the co-author (with Nathaniel Silver) of Isabella Stewart Gardner: A Life (2022). Prior to joining the Gardner, she was an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
In addition to being a curator, her academic research uses both statistical and qualitative analyses to explore the relationship between art and broader social and economic change during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Her book Painting by Numbers: Data-Driven Histories of Nineteenth-Century Art was published by Princeton University Press in 2021.
She received a DPhil in History from the University of Oxford. Before doctoral study, Diana earned an MPhil in Economic and Social History from Oxford and received a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from Columbia University.
Michele Frederick
Michele Frederick is Curator of European Art and Provenance Research at the North Carolina Museum of Art, where she is responsible for the Museum’s important collection of Northern European paintings. She holds a PhD in seventeenth-century Dutch art from the University of Delaware. She has previously served as the Samuel H. Kress Foundation Interpretive Fellow at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Samuel H. Kress Predoctoral Fellow at The Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.
Abigail Rapoport
Abigail Rapoport is the Curator of Judaica at the Jewish Museum. She previously worked on Judaica within the European Sculpture and Decorative Arts department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Rapoport holds a PhD in medieval art history from the University of Pennsylvania where she also received her MA in seventeenth-century Dutch art. Her prior exhibition, Beauty and Ritual: Judaica from the Jewish Museum, New York originally ran at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in 2022 and will be traveling to the Frist Art Museum, Nashville in 2026. Abigail was listed on New York Jewish Week’s “36 to Watch” in 2022 and recognized by the Borough President of Manhattan for her work in Jewish culture and art. Abigail currently serves as a board member on the Council of American Jewish Museums.
Laura Mandel, Moderator
Laura Conrad Mandel is an artist, public art advocate, and social entrepreneur. She joined The Vilna as Managing Director of Program Strategy and Impact after serving as founding Executive Director of the Jewish Arts Collaborative. Laura came to the non-profit world after graduating Carnegie Mellon University with a degree in Art and English, and began her career as the Director of Alumni and Parent Relations for the Hillel Jewish University Center of Pittsburgh. She currently serves as the Board Chair of the Council of American Jewish Museums, co-chair of the Boston Lyric Stage Advisory Committee, is a member of the MASSCreative Advisory Council, and the JCRC Boston Council. Mandel writes regular arts and culture blogs for JewishBoston.com and The Times of Israel.
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