In this episode, the fine line between obsession and madness, illustrated in a piece of furniture. Toledo Museum of Art curator Erin Corrales-Diaz joins Ben to discuss a unique secretary desk which might hold the world record for inlay: thousands upon thousands of pieces of wood, which in its maker’s own words, “will do more in ten minutes to inspire young people with the possibilities of life than ten years of haphazard and scattered endeavor.
Erin Corrales-Diaz is the Curator of American Art at the Toledo Museum of Art. She holds a Ph.D. in Art History from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and she is a scholar specializing in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American art with a particular focus on art of the American Civil War and African American art. She has curated over a dozen exhibits across six museums, including serving as the venue curator for Black Orpheus: Jacob Lawrence and the Mbari Club (2023) at TMA and curating The Iconic Jersey: Baseball x Fashion (2011) at the Worcester Art Museum. She has lectured widely on topics related to nineteenth-century American art and visual culture at institutions such as the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Library of Congress, the Musée d’Orsay, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
