Cynthia Williams

For the past three decades, Cynthia Williams has been active in the field of the history of decorative arts and design. After completing an MA in Communication at Fairfield University, she held assignments at Fortune 500 companies including managing a corporate art collection. A professional pivot led her to complete in 1998 the Cooper-Hewitt/Parsons School of Design MA program in the history of decorative arts. 

For the 15 years following graduation, Williams was program director and assistant professor of glass and ceramics at Parsons’ MA program in the History of Decorative Arts at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. In 2020 she completed her PhD in art history at the University of Glasgow with a dissertation on 19th-century British engraved glass. That same year, Williams was named a fellow of the Corning Museum of Glass. Today, she continues researching, writing, and lecturing on the global impact of British glassmaking and serves as a decorative arts collection consultant.

In addition to teaching the required history of glass course for undergraduates at RISD, she serves as president of the board of trustees of The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass. Through its renowned and expansive collection of lamps and windows and its historic Tiffany glass archive, the organization celebrates the contributions of Louis C. Tiffany and his artisans to American art, history, and culture.