About us

Titi Halle is a leader in the fields of textiles and costume. She met the renowned Cora Ginsburg in 1979, joining Cora Ginsburg, Inc. two years later. She was named director in 1985 and, in 1997, she took over the business as Cora Ginsburg LLC. She has lectured at many museums, historical societies, and institutes across the US, including Colonial Williamsburg, Detroit Institute of Art, Sotheby's Institute, and The Textile Museum. She has served on the Textile Vetting Committees for TEFAF in Maastricht and New York, Masterpiece London, and The Winter Show in New York. In 2017, Ms. Halle was the recipient of the Bard Graduate Center Iris Foundation Award for Outstanding Dealer. She is a member of the National Antique and Art Dealers Association of America, the Centre International d’Etude des Textiles Anciens, the Costume Society of America, the Textile Society of America, and CINOA. For over fifteen years, she participated as an expert on the US Antiques Roadshow.

Martina D’Amato joined Cora Ginsburg LLC in 2015. She is a doctoral candidate at the Bard Graduate Center (M.A., 2012; M.Phil., 2017) with a specialization in European textiles and collecting history. Her dissertation focuses on the intersection of art collecting, medievalism and Renaissance revivalism, and politics in 19th-century France and Italy through case studies of the collectors Louis Carrand (1827–1888) and the Marchioness Arconati-Visconti (1840–1923). Her most recent publications include: “Europe: A Tale of Clouded Silk,” in Global Ikat: A World of Compelling Cloth (London: Hali Publications, 2023); and “Il passa les Alpes avec ses trésors: Louis Carrand and Florence,” in Florence, ville d'art, et les Français la création d'un mythe (Rome: Campisano Editore, 2022). She has given numerous talks on Italian and French textiles, design, and collecting history at institutions including the Ashmolean Museum, The Frick Collection, The Met, and the Politecnico di Milano. She has been an expert on the US Antiques Roadshow since 2022.

Michele Majer has been with Cora Ginsburg LLC as a research associate since 1995. In addition to her work for the gallery, she is Professor Emerita at the Bard Graduate Center, where she taught courses in clothing and textile history for 28 years. Ms. Majer received her B.A. at Barnard College and her M.A. at New York University. She was on the curatorial staff at the Costume Institute, Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1986 to 1993. She was co-curator of the exhibition Threads of Power: Lace from the Textilmuseum St. Gallen (Bard Graduate Center, September 16, 2022–January 1, 2023) and contributed to and co-edited the accompanying catalogue, which received an AAMC 2023 Award for Excellence in publication. She also curated the exhibition Staging Fashion, 1880-1920:  Jane Hading, Lily Elsie, Billie Burke (Bard Graduate Center, January 18–April 8, 2012) and contributed to and edited the accompanying catalogue. Other publications include: “Arte, moda e mercato : la rivista Les Modes e l'Hôtel des Modes,” in Boldini e la moda (Ferrara: Fondazione Ferrara arte, 2020); “Le Costume Tailleur / The Skirt Suit,” in French Fashion, Women, and the First World War (New York: Yale University Press/Bard Graduate Center, 2019); and “La Mode à la girafe: Fashion, Culture and Politics in Bourbon Restoration France,” in Studies in the Decorative Arts (2009). Ms. Majer has lectured on various aspects of clothing history in the United States, France, and the United Kingdom, and is a contributor to the yearly Cora Ginsburg catalogue. 

Donna Ghelerter is an independent textile and fashion historian and appraiser in New York City. She has been a certified member of the Appraisers Association of America since 2015 and has appraised textiles, clothing, and fashion accessories for donations to major museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, among many others. From 1990 to 2001, Ms. Ghelerter worked at Cora Ginsburg LLC, and she continues to be a regular contributor to the gallery's annual catalogue. She is the editor of the publication Marguerita Mergentime: American Textiles, Modern Ideas (New York: West Madison Press, 2017).

Leigh Wishner is a design historian specializing in modern textiles and fashion. She has worked in the museum field for over twenty years, holding positions at the FIDM Museum at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Cora Ginsburg LLC. She received her B.A. in Art History and Archaeology from Barnard College, and her M.A. in Decorative Arts and Material Culture from Bard Graduate Center. Leigh has a passion for 20th-century textiles, fashions, and interiors, lecturing extensively on these intertwined subjects. Most recently, she contributed to A Dark, A Light, A Bright: The Designs of Dorothy Liebes (New Haven/New York: Yale University Press/Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, 2023), the first major publication devoted to this pioneering, 20th-century American weaver. Follow her on social media: @PatternPlayUSA.