Jonathan Leo Fairbanks

Background

Fairbanks is the son of the American sculptor, Avard Fairbanks. He was born in Ann Arbor while his father was teaching at the University of Michigan. He is also an eleventh generation descendant of English colonist Jonathan Fairbanks.

Education

He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Utah and his Master of Fine Arts from the University of Pennsylvania through a joint program with the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

Career

Fairbanks created the American Decorative Arts and Sculpture department at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and served as the Curator of the department from 1970-1999. Fairbanks is on the Board of Directors of the Fairbanks Family in America, Incorporated., which owns and operates the house. He earned a second Masters degree, an Master of Arts in American Culture, from the University of Delaware in the Winterthur Museum Fellowship Program.

He served at the museum as an Associate Curator in charge of conservation for nine years.

Fairbanks has served as curator for several exhibits, including "Becoming a Nation, Americana from the Diplomatic Reception Rooms, United States. Department of State," which toured eight cities from April 2003 until January 2005. He was also the Senior Vice President of AntiquesAmerica.com, the Editor at Large for the Catalogue of Antiques and Fine Art, and a Research Associate at Boston University.

He is on the Board of Directors of the Decorative Arts Trust, of which he was President for 12 years. Fairbanks served as Vice President of Research for Artfact.com.

He is currently the Director of the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Master of Arts.

Some of Fairbanks’ artwork is owned by institutions such as the National Portrait Gallery, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, The Boston Public Library, the Wye House and Myrtle Grove on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and the Alhambra in southern Spain.

His work was featured in the exhibit, “Jonathan Leo Fairbanks, A Painter"s Journey, 1952-2004,” which was on display at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts in Hagerstown, Doctor of Medicine in 2004. In 2003, the Furniture Society bestowed upon Fairbanks the Award of Distinction.

Achievements

• Jonathan Leo Fairbanks has been listed as a notable art company executive, museum curator, artist by Marquis Who's Who.

Membership

Board directors Revere House, Boston, Fairbanks House, Dedham, The Connick Foundation. Former member Committee for Preservation White House. President Decorative Arts trust.

Former trustee Forest Hills Cemetery, Longfellow's Wayside Inn, Shirley-Eustis House. Fellow Pilgrim Society, American Institute Conservation, American crafts Council (honorary). Member Victorian Society of America (past vice president, Lifetime Achievement award American, New England chapter 2000), International Institute Conservation, American Association Museum, Society Architectural Historians, National Trust for History Preservation, Colonial Society Massachusetts, Decorative Arts Society (vice president 1978-1979, C.F. Montgomery award 1983), Westwood History Society (president 1978-1981), American Society Interior Designers (honorary), Massachusetts History Society, American Antiquarian Society, Colonial Society, Walpole Society, St. Botolph Club.

Connections

Married Louise Ann Eckenbrecht, February 12, 1954. Children: Theresa Louise Fairbanks Harris, Hilary-Annual.

Father:

Avard T. Fairbanks

Mother:

Beatrice Maude (Fox) Fairbanks

Spouse:

Louise Ann Eckenbrecht

child:

Hilary-Annual Fairbanks

child:

Theresa Louise Fairbanks Harris Fairbanks