Obituary Courtesy Legacy.com

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Hope Alswang died in Providence on June 11, 2024, after a brief illness. Alswang was smart, irreverent, determined and creative. The world is a quieter place without her. Over her 50-year career, she was the director of the Museum Program of the New York State Council on the Arts as well as the director of four museums. These included the New Jersey Historical Society in Newark, N.J., Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vt., the Art Museum, Rhode Island School of Design in Providence and the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Fla. She is mourned by her family and many friends as a clear-headed thinker with iron convictions and ambitious goals, which she met for her museums and herself.

She raised a wonderful family and inspired her children to work in the worlds of art and culture. She loved her many cats and dogs, and her homes never had fewer than four animals (and sometimes as many as eight) underfoot, with one often nestled on her lap. Beloved for her wicked sense of humor, Alswang was a true original. She thrived in the spotlight and loved to entertain, especially at her memorable birthday parties.

She is survived by her husband, Henry Joyce; her daughter, Augusta Joyce, and two grandsons, Otto and Caspar Haslberger, of Munich, Germany; her son, Horatio Joyce, of Manhattan; and her siblings, Frances Alswang of Manhattan and Ralph Alswang of Washington DC. The interment of her ashes will take place privately, for immediate family.