Welcome Lilly Watson, Our New Assistant Museum Educator
Hello everyone! My name is Lilly Watson (they/them) and I am the new Post Baccalaureate Assistant Museum Educator here at SCMA. I’m also excited to be a part of a new post-bacc cohort with Grace Sinclair (she/her) in the marketing department and Lucy Montgomery (she/her) in the curatorial department.
Lilly (left) with their artwork Impersonal Space, exhibited in Spring of 2025 as a part of the Senior Show Hide & Seek.
I recently graduated from Smith in Spring of 2025 with a Studio Art major and a Museums concentration. In my time as an art student, I enjoyed making prints and creating soft-sculptures. I was also co-president of Smith’s Illustration club during my time on campus. Art is something that I feel very close to, so being able to work in a building with such incredible artwork in it that expresses such abundant ideas about people, the world, and how we inhabit it is truly a joy.
I am originally from Gilbert, Arizona and have since fallen in love with all the seasons Western Mass has to offer. Being able to experience the beautiful changing of leaves in the fall, the blankets of snow in the winter, the brightening of the campus in the spring, and the gentle hum of summer have all been great highlights of moving to the East Coast for me.
Lilly leading an activity in the galleries with photographs from the series Art is… by Lorraine O’Grady.
I am not a new face here at SCMA as I worked here for almost 3 years in the Education department as a Student Museum Educator. Teaching with K-12 students in the galleries has always been something incredibly rewarding and exciting for me, so I am so glad I get to keep thinking about how to connect people with artworks in my new role here through gallery teaching and interpretation.
During a couple of my college summers I was able to intern in the education department of the i.d.e.a. Museum in Mesa, Arizona and to be an Education and Interpretation intern at the Columbus Museum of Art. Both of these experiences were great for me to learn more about the ins and outs of engagements with artworks in gallery spaces. I was also able to devise, plan, and implement public-facing artmaking activities for both of these museums during my time at each one. My experiences with both of these institutions were super meaningful and allowed for me to be able to understand the impacts of these kinds of engagements on museum audiences as well as seeing all the logistical input that goes into making those kinds of activities possible.
Creativity is a facet of my everyday life; I strive to center creativity in my teaching practice and consider it as ever evolving and being in response to the world around me. I also value creativity in my personal life as an artist and I am always looking for ways to implement drawing and other forms of artistic expression in my work. I am so excited to continue to evolve my museum education practice creatively and with intention here with SCMA.