ABOUT ELISABETH

Elisabeth Kirsch AKA Lizzie Drake is an art curator, historian, writer, and jewelry designer who has curated over 100 exhibitions of contemporary art, American Indian, and Himalayan art throughout the United States.

Her exhibitions have been reviewed in “The New York Times,” “Art in America,” “Art News,” “American Craft,” and other newspapers and periodicals. She was a National Endowment for the Arts Writing Fellow, has written over 15 gallery and museum catalogs, and contributed over 300 articles and reviews to local and national arts publications. She was in charge of the USIA’s International Artist Residency Program and worked with artists from around the world.

She lives in Kansas City, and contributes to “KC Studio Magazine” and national arts periodicals.  She is currently curating two local exhibitions, including “Look Me in the Eye,” representing the diversity in Kansas City, for Village Shalom’s Epsten Gallery.

Lizzie worked full-time as a curator of American Indian and contemporary art in New York City before moving to Kansas City in 1995.  She continued to work as a freelance curator and art writer until she developed breast cancer 10 years ago.  While recuperating from surgeries, she began hand-crafting jewelry and hasn’t stopped since!

Although she continues to curate and write about art for museums and various periodicals, jewelry is her main occupation. She realizes that the history of beadmaking is as ancient and fascinating as the history of art, and considers herself a “curator of beads.”  Many beads are little artworks, and some are masterpieces.

She loves working with vintage beads from Africa, Nepal, India, and China, as well as glass beads made in Venice and Czechoslovakia.  She also has artist friends who make ceramic and glass beads, and often incorporates them into her designs.

Her jewelry is in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and various boutiques around the country.