Leara Rhodes

Every time my cell phone shows that “Lilly” is calling, I slide open the phone for a conversation that will share insights into art, theatre, travel, politics, friends we have in common, adventures, new projects, and always new ideas. As a student in my feature writing class, she sat on the front row and robustly contributed to class discussions on writing. One day she knocks on my office door and comes in “just to chat.” I discovered during that conversation that Lilly didn’t want to be a journalist, she wanted to be an art curator in New York, one who knows how to write.

To go from scratch to success, Lillian McEachern did it her way. Her first effort was to make sure she had the education that would fit her future goals. She earned a B.A. in Journalism with a minor in Art History and a certificate in Museum Studies. Then she set about getting experience—her first internship was with the Georgia Museum of Art as a registrar intern. This is where she learned how to handle works of art; how to compile and maintain checklists for exhibitions, tours by visiting scholars, donors and foundations; how to compose and update condition reports, media, location, and object information; how to conduct preservation cleaning of objects; and how to produce clear and professional photographs of objects for public viewing.

Though she graduated in 2020, she continued to find ways to expand her museum experience in a small southern town of 130,000 people. She curated the “hallway museum” at Hotel Indigo in Athens, became a researcher at the Lyndon House Arts Center in Athens and then a programs and special projects assistant. She served on the Exhibitions Committee at Athens Institute for Contemporary Art where she curated special exhibitions and scored proposals. Simultaneously she became the exhibitions and project coordinator at the Steffen Thomas Museum of Art in Buckhead, Georgia, a forty-minute ride from Athens. To broaden her scope and use her journalism education she began and continues freelance ghost writing and marketing for artist studios. All of these positions were during the same time period. She juggled her time judiciously. She was so busy that if she called, I knew she was in her car driving to one of the locations.

In the spring of 2022, I got the call I had hoped for, she called to tell me that she did not renew her apartment lease, she had decided to go to New York. We celebrated with a glass of wine on my back patio. Lilly approached moving to New York from Athens the way she does most everything: reading, learning, and talking to as many people “in-the-know” as possible. Before she even packed, I think, she had lined up an interview at a museum in New York. She flew up, got the job, and prepared her move to live with four friends in Brooklyn to experience New York together. Her adventure started and continues. In November there is to be a special event in Massachusetts focusing on one of her writing projects for an artist.

Lilly is the latest of a long line of my students who worked various jobs to pay for college but were focused on career goals. She did all of the heavy lifting to prepare to move to New York during a pandemic and to secure a museum position—in just two years. She is the curatorial assistant at the Shirley Fiterman Art Center at the borough of Manhattan Community College in New York since August 2022.

Only one year ago, she left her four iron patio chairs on my porch with the promise to call when she got settled. She did, and, she continues to call. Happy anniversary, Lilly. I can’t wait to hear what you will be doing next.