Janet Saleh Dickson, a longtime curator of education at the Yale University Art Gallery who developed programs there in an effort to foster public appreciation of and access to art, died May 25 after a long illness.
Among her many innovations was the popular Art à la Carte, a lunchtime program with guided tours which made the gallery accessible to working people and scholars alike. She was particularly adept at capturing the imaginations of the young and successfully guided many gallery outreach programs through New Haven public schools.
Ms. Dickson was a native of Iran, whose family immigrated to this country via Egypt and Brazil in 1942. She was brought up in New York City and New Rochelle and attended Sarah Lawrence College. After working in the fledgling Head Start program in the New York City public school system, she went to New York University to earn a master's degree in art education. From graduate school she went on to the Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the newly founded Whitney Museum, finally moving to New Haven with her husband in 1970, when she joined Yale as the gallery's curator of education. She held that post until her retirement three years ago due to her illness.
An artist herself, Ms. Dickson was an avid arts advocate. For her promotion of the arts in the New Haven community, she received the Ivy Award in 1980, and in 1988 she received the Arts Award from the Arts Council of Greater New Haven. She served on the Arts Council Board for 10 years and was active in the New England Museum Association, eventually serving as its president.
Ms. Dickson is survived by two daughters, Johanna and Emma Dickson, and her partner of many years, Aboud Bashy.
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