Born December 12, 1934.

Chair and Curator of the Department of Textiles, Art Institute of Chicago.

Born in Darmstadt, Germany, Christa Mayer moved as a child from Germany to Zurich, Switzerland and came to New York to study at Finch College in 1954. She graduated in 1958 and in the same year enrolled in the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. Three years later she received her U.S. citizenship and her Masters Degree.

She first came to the Art Institute in 1967 to become Curator of Textiles, a position she held for 42 years. The endowed position of Christa C. Mayer Thurman Chair and Curator of Textiles was created in her honor in 1992.

Mrs. Thurman's curatorial leadership and dedication to her department were unequaled. Over many years she built and researched the Art Institute's textile collection with great distinction. The department's first acquisitions, in 1890, were 3 tapestries, bought sight unseen in Rome. Now tapestries are just a small part of the collection Thurman expanded to 15,000 textiles.

Among Mrs. Thurman's many exhibitions and publications Masterpieces of Western textiles from the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute, 1969), Claire Zeisler a Retrospective (Art Institute, 1979), and Raiment For The Lord's Service: A Thousand Years of Western Vestments (Art Institute, 1975) stand out. Her most recent project was The Divine Art: Four Centuries of European Tapestries. The exhibition showed all of the Art Institute's 62 European tapestries together for the first time, made possible by her efforts to clean, conserve and restore many of them. The accompanying collection catalogue is regarded as one of the most definitive and comprehensive volumes of its kind.

At the opening of the exhibition in November of 2008, the world's greatest tapestry scholars gathered at the Art Institute to offer testimony to Christa C. Mayer Thurman's career as the leading curator and scholar. in the field. Mrs. Thurman retired in 2009.

1. News Release from The Art Institute of Chicago, September 14, 1967.
2. Koenraad Brosens et al, Christa C. Mayer Thurman, ed. European tapestries in the Art Institute of Chicago. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008. Exhibition catalogue published in conjunction with the exhibition The Divine art: four centuries of European tapestries in the Art Institute of Chicago, held at the Art Institute of Chicago, Nov. 1, 2008 – Jan. 4, 2009.
3. Betty Taylor. Chicago Tribune, February 24, 1969. Art Institute historical scrapbook collection [p.1 of 2].
4. Betty Taylor. Chicago Tribune, February 24, 1969. Art Institute historical scrapbook collection [p.2 of 2].
5. Opening of the exhibition Rainment for The Lord's Service: A Thousand Years of Western Vestments, November 15, 1975. Mrs. Thurman on the right, accompanied by Chairman of the Board of The Art Institute James Alsdorf, and Mrs. Marilyn Alsdorf.
6. Alan Artner. Thurman on solo mission to preserve tapestries. Chicago Tribune, December 28, 2008.