Linda Kaufman, Penny Ashford, Richard Chilton Join Winterthur’s Board of Trustees

WINTERTHUR, DEL. – Bruce C. Perkins, chairman of the Board of Trustees of Winterthur, announced the election of three new board members: Richard L. Chilton, president and chief executive officer of Chilton Investment Company, Inc; Paula (Penny) M. Ashford, president of Ashford Interiors; and Linda K. Kaufman, a nationally recognized collector.

“Winterthur is privileged to have such distinguished and enthusiastic supporters of the arts on its board,” said Perkins. “Richard Chilton is a serious collector with a passionate interest in historic preservation and American decorative arts, while Penny Ashford has galvanized young families and the local Wilmington business community in her efforts to cultivate the next generation of Winterthur supporters and volunteers. Linda Kaufman’s national reputation and tireless support of research and scholarship in the field of American decorative arts are tremendous assets to Winterthur and its education mission.”

Chilton is a member of the Friends of Winterthur and a supporter of the institution’s Decorative Arts Professorship. He is chairman of the board of The Chilton Foundation in New York, chairman and founder of the Darien Technology Foundation, and serves on the board of the Robin Hood Foundation.

A major collector of American furniture and paintings, Chilton has also lent his support and expertise to various American art museums and historic houses. For seven years, he was a board member and the head of the Investment Committee for Historic Hudson Valley. In addition, he is on the Chairman’s Council for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Ashford is a member of Winterthur’s development committee and Young Friends of Winterthur. She served as Preview Party Committee chair for the 2000 Delaware Antiques Show, which benefits Winterthur’s Education Program, and co-chaired the committee in 2001.

An active volunteer, Ashford organized a number of events to acquaint young children and families with the many family activities and programs available at Winterthur. She was one of the catalysts behind fundraising efforts in support of the 2001 opening of Enchanted Woods(tm), Winterthur’s new children’s garden.

Kaufman is a life member of the Friends of Winterthur and a member of Winterthur’s Collectors Circle since 1998. With her late husband, George, she assembled a superior collection of American furniture over the past 40 years, as well as a collection of Seventeenth Century Dutch paintings, French and American watercolors, Eighteenth Century brass and Chinese export porcelain.

In 1977, the Kaufmans established the Kaufman Americana Foundation to administer grants in support of exhibitions, publications, acquisitions and scholarships in the decorative arts. In 1986, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., honored them with a special exhibition entitled “American Furniture from the Kaufman Collection.”

The Kaufmans have been enthusiastic supporters of Winterthur for many years. The couple received the prestigious Henry Francis du Pont Award for Decorative Arts and Architecture in January 2002. The award recognized the Kaufmans for their outstanding support of museums and scholarship, through their long history of funding exhibitions in the United States and Europe, and their dedicated service on museum boards and committees.

As a Winterthur trustee, Kaufman sees changing exhibitions as a great part of the museum’s function. “I look forward to working with Winterthur as it explores new and interesting ways to showcase objects from America’s past,” she said. “I envision Winterthur playing an even stronger role in increasing the public’s awareness and appreciation of American decorative arts.”