Dr. Lee Anne Hurt Chesterfield

Assistant Curator of Ancient American Art

Dr. Lee Anne Hurt Chesterfield currently holds the position of Director for Museum Planning and Board Relations and Assistant Curator of Ancient American Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Chesterfield received a PhD in art history from Virginia Commonwealth University and a BBA in marketing from James Madison University. She is a specialist in ancient South American art and architecture and her dissertation, entitled The Huacas of Machu Picchu: Inca Stations for the Communion Between Humanity and Nature, argues that huacas, or sacred places, defined the relationship between nature and human ritual practice. She became the Virginia Museum’s first curator of Ancient American Art in 2006 and opened the museum’s first permanent galleries for Pre-Columbian and Native American art in 2010. As the Director of Museum Planning and Board Relations, Chesterfield manages several special projects for the museum including strategic planning as well as Board communications and engagement.