Philadelphia, January 8, 2026 – The Philadelphia Art Museum is saddened by the loss of Dilys E. Blum, the Jack M. and Annette Y. Friedland Senior Curator of Costume and Textiles, who passed away on December 27, 2025. Blum retired in June 2025 after four decades of leadership of the museum’s Costume and Textiles department. After her retirement, she was honored with the title Curator Emeritus in recognition of her extraordinary contributions to the art museum and the field.
“Dilys Blum leaves a remarkable legacy,” said Daniel Weiss, the George D. Widener Director and CEO of the Philadelphia Art Museum. “Through decades of scholarship and curatorial rigor, she transformed this museum’s Costume and Textiles department into a program respected around the world. Her work expanded the very idea of what belongs in an art museum and ensured that these objects are appreciated as vital expressions of culture and identity. We are profoundly grateful for her contributions and the foundation she built for the future.”
After joining the museum in 1987, she shaped the department into a center of education, creativity, and connoisseurship. A curator and trained textile conservator with a global perspective, having studied at the University of Manchester and the Courtauld Institute in London, Blum brought a rare combination of technical expertise and cultural insight into her work.
Her career began with roles at the Museum of London, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Chicago Conservation Center, before she assumed her role at the Philadelphia Art Museum. Under her leadership, the museum’s costume and textiles collection grew into one of the most wide-ranging collections in the United States, encompassing Renaissance velvets, contemporary fashion, kantha quilts of Bengal, Asian textiles, and African American quilts. This international reach and historical breadth reflect Blum’s expansive curatorial vision and decades of dedication to research, acquisition, conservation, and interpretation. She was also considered the world’s leading authority on the work of Elsa Schiaparelli.
Over the course of Blum’s tenure, she curated more than forty exhibitions that redefined how fashion and textiles are understood in museums: as works of art, as vessels of identity, and as mirrors of social change. Landmark exhibitions included Best Dressed: 250 Years of Style (1997), Shocking!: The Art and Fashion of Elsa Schiaparelli (2003), Roberto Capucci: Art into Fashion (2011), Patrick Kelly: Runway of Love (2014), Off the Wall (2019), and most recently Boom: Art and Design in the 1940s (2025). Her projects celebrated textile traditions, avant-garde fashion, and African American quiltmakers, among many others.
Blum was also a prolific scholar, authoring and contributing to numerous publications, including The Fine Art of Textiles (1997), Shocking!: The Art and Fashion of Elsa Schiaparelli (2003), Roberto Capucci: Art Into Fashion (2011), and Patrick Kelly: Runway of Love (2021), which received an honorable mention for the Costume Society of America’s Millia Davenport Publication Award in 2023. She also wrote essays for major exhibition catalogues such as The Arts in Latin America, 1492–1820 (2006) and the upcoming Workshop of the World: Arts and Crafts in Philadelphia, which opens in July 2026. Blum’s writing consistently amplified the makers and wearers of extraordinary objects, and their intertwined relationships.
Beyond her curatorial work, Blum served on editorial boards for leading journals and was an active member of professional organizations, including the ICOM Costume Committee and the Association of Art Museum Curators. She was a generous mentor and a committed advocate for her field, leaving an enduring legacy woven through the art museum and the generations of scholars and visitors who now see costumes and textiles as central to the story of art.
We extend our heartfelt condolences to her family, friends, and colleagues. Dilys Blum’s vision and passion will continue to inspire the museum and the world of costume and textiles for years to come.
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