Elizabeth Wilson ’70, Freelancing in NYC

Judy Wilson Grant '66 and sister Elizabeth Wilson '70

Elizabeth Wilson ’70 is a freelance writer in New York City. She lives near the the Metropolitan Museum of Art, visits exhibits several times each week, and writes mostly about the visual and performing arts.

Wilson has published two articles in Smithsonian Magazine. One focuses on the ancient Egyptian queen, Hatshepsut, and the other on the French revolutionary painter Jacques- Louis David. “Hatshepsut was the first great female ruler in history,” Wilson said. Her controversial position as queen made for an interesting story, perhaps even challenging the historical interpretations of her rule. Similarly, Wilson’s article on Jacques-Louis David hovered around his radical mix of politics and art. He was essentially an art dictator during the French Revolution who sent several painters to their deaths and eventually voted to have Louis XVI, for whom he had been a commissioned painter, executed. “[David] was one of the inventors of propaganda. Mussolini and Hitler were very interested in what he did,” shared Wilson. “Now there’s a story for you!”

As a freelancer, Wilson has learned to be savvy in her techniques. “The onus is on you to come up with the idea that will sell,” she said. In choosing these two articles for Smithsonian, she made sure that each historical figure had a rich story to tell.

Wilson graduated with an art history degree from Sweet Briar and went on to the University of Virginia for her masters in the same area of study before moving to New York. “I came to New York and worked at Christie’s [auction house],” Wilson shared, “but I didn’t have the killer instincts to become a dealer. I was much more interested in the museum side of things. I liked to write, to educate, to communicate.”

After Christie’s, Wilson worked with the Morgan Library and Museum and later, the MET. “I’ve written a lot of audio guides,” says Wilson. “For a writer, [this is] an extremely good discipline because it forces you to be concise. [You also learn] that there’s a difference between the written and spoken word.”

When asked about how she arrived at freelance writing, Wilson said, “I had to do a lot of writing in my museum work, and I wanted to have an authorial voice. As I lurched into my fifties, I thought, it’s now or never.”

Of her decision, she said: “We mere mortals don’t get paid that much, but I’m very happy with it. As I’ve often said, the thing about being a writer is, you’re never bored. Everything you see, or that happens to you, is potential fodder for your writing.” For Wilson, writing is wonderful, “as long as you don’t mind peanut butter for lunch.”

At present, she is working on a nonfiction how-to book—a guide for parents on how to take children through museums. It’s a book of practical advice to be called, First Find the Bathrooms. Wilson writes regularly for Art News and has written for Town and Country, Art & Antiques, and Museums New York.