MFA Coordinator
Professor of Art
MFA Program

Darby Cardonsky is Professor and Coordinator of the MFA in Visual Arts program at Western Connecticut State University. From 2000 to 2009, she was a founding member of the MFA advisory board. As an instructor of gallery studies classes since 2007, she served as Curator of the Gallery at Higgins Hall from 2009 to 2012. She currently teaches graduate courses in art colloquium, art history, practicum internship, and thesis exhibition.

Prior to her work at WCSU, Darby was co-owner and director of the Bachelier Cardonsky Gallery in Kent, CT. From 1988 to 2009, her gallery was known for its comprehensive exhibitions of emerging artists and twentieth century masters. Over the twenty-two years, shows included works by Alexander Calder, Jim Dine, Jasper Johns, Lee Krasner, Henry Moore, Jackson Pollock, Frank Stella, and many others. Numerous reviews and articles were published in The New York Times, Herald Tribune, Art in America, and regional periodicals. She was also a guest curator for gallery exhibitions in Paris and New York.

Darby received an MA degree from Hunter College. While living in NYC, she worked with Lee Krasner for nine years and with the Pollock Krasner Foundation in its first year of formation. She also worked with Forum Gallery and with Spencer A. Samuels & Company, which specialized in sixteenth to twentieth century masterworks.  She has lived in Connecticut since 1983.