Jane Winchell, The Sarah Fraser Robbins Director, The Dotty Brown Art & Nature Center, Curator of Natural History

Jane Winchell is the founding director of PEM's Dotty Brown Art & Nature Center and Curator of Natural History. She led the multi-year development of the museum's original Art & Nature Center, as well as the newly revamped and expanded center that opened in 2013. She curates the natural history collection at the museum, which dates back to the founding of the institution.

Winchell has curated, co-curated or coordinated more than 20 interactive and interdisciplinary shows for the museum about our evolving relationship with the more-than-human world, including Knowing Nature: Stories of the Boreal Forest; Narwhal: Revealing an Arctic Legend; Bats!; Our Time on Earth; Climate Action: Inspiring Change; Down to the Bone: Edward Koren and Stephen Gorman; Konstantin Dimopoulos: The Blue Trees; The Great Animal Orchestra: Bernie Krause and United Visual Artists; Where the Questions Live: An Exploration of Humans in Nature; XYZT: A Journey in 4 Dimensions; and Lunar Attraction, among others.

Winchell also led development of The Pod, the hands-on Art & Nature Center space that opened in 2019 and includes installations, art and creative expression that “bring us closer to the nature right outside our door.” She has also been spearheading the museum’s Climate + Environment Initiative since 2021, which consists of nature-focused special exhibitions, programs and other activities that spark conversation, motivate action and inspire creative solutions.

Her research and writings have been published in scientific journals, technical memoranda, museum catalogs and the popular press. She holds a B.A. in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic, and two graduate degrees: an M.S. in Science Communication and an M.A. in Biology, both from Boston University.

Follow @janeywinchell on Instagram.