The Westmoreland Museum of American Art

“I’m a believer in introducing more fun and play and interactive experiences …. Museums can be for everybody.”

Silvia Filippini–Fantoni started her career at the Louvre in Paris, the most visited art museum in the world. She moved on to two other exulted art institutions—the British Museum and the J. Paul Getty Museum—to work on technology– based projects and audience engagement.

They were invaluable experiences. But for all their grandeur and galleries filled with priceless masterpieces, those iconic places lacked something for Filippini–Fantoni—a connection with their communities.

When someone visits a museum such as the Louvre, with upwards of 7 million people coming through its galleries each year, “you’re a number,” she said. “Most of these people will come once in their lifetime and never come again.”

In contrast, The Westmoreland Museum of American Art is a small gem that is part of the fabric of the community.

As the new Richard M. Scaife Director and Chief Executive Officer, Filippini–Fantoni is working to make the Museum an even larger part of the lives of residents of Greensburg and Westmoreland County.

“I’m interested in the Museum playing a role in the lifetime of a visitor right from where you go as a kid with your school, do an internship here in college, rent the room downstairs for your wedding, bring your kids here. When you are in your 60s, you take a printmaking class here.”

While many people in Greensburg and Westmoreland County are proud of the Museum that has a national reputation for its collection of American art, many don’t visit frequently, she said. Some are intimidated because they never studied art. She wants to change the perception of art museums as elitist by offering playful events such as a family day, Art in Bloom or a vintage ball. “They come to socialize. But once they are here, they will look around at the art and say, ‘This place is incredible.’”

The Richard King Mellon Foundation granted $500,000 to the Museum in 2023 for its operating budget, an important gift for an arts destination that makes itself accessible by charging no admission. The grant also will enable the Museum to work to increase attendance, which would boost revenue from the cafe and gift shop.

The Museum attracted an average of about 24,000 visitors a year pre–pandemic, but like many museums, its attendance dipped by 30 percent after reopening. The Museum is on track to exceed its goal of rebounding to 90–100 percent of its former attendance in 2024.

The Museum now invites visitors to participate more actively by filling out cards that say, “When I saw …, I learned ….” The director also wants to use technology to draw people in. For example, the Museum has a collection of Frakturs—ornate birth, marriage and other certificates made by German immigrants. Light– sensitive, they are stored in drawers, but Filippini– Fantoni envisions a new display in which a visitor could pull out a drawer containing the document and see an image projected on the wall along with a translation and more detail about the family or location, as well as the opportunity for people to create their own Fraktur document.

Filippini–Fantoni grew up in Bergamo, Italy, surrounded by the art of the medieval town. She lived in the Upper Town, on top of a hill surrounded by Venetian walls. Her elementary school was in a 14th–century convent.

She studied history at the Università degli Studi di Milano before receiving both a master’s and doctorate degree at Sorbonne University in Paris in museology/museum studies.

Though European museums are grand tourist destinations, she was more interested in U.S. museums that were part of the community, including her most recent job as Deputy Director of Learning and Engagement at the Newark Museum of Art.

Filippini–Fantoni is excited to bring people in Westmoreland County and the Greater Pittsburgh region to the Museum in new ways. "I’m a believer in introducing more fun and play and interactive experiences that will connect with people in an immediate way,” she said. “Museums can be for everybody.”