Jennifer Souers Chevraux
Principal + Founder
Jennifer has over 25 years of experience in the GLAM field (gallery, library, archive, museum), during which she has served as curator, educator, exhibits director, development officer, board member, and executive director at a wide variety of cultural heritage institutions—everything from a children’s museum to a Presidential Library—managing collections ranging from prehistoric artifacts to WWII firearms, and taxidermy to contemporary art.
Jennifer’s educational background is in the history of Western Europe from the high Middle Ages through the Renaissance and the archaeology of northern Europe from the Bronze Age through the Migration Period and Viking Age. Her specialty is finding relevance in all kinds of collections and making our interactions with them meaningful.
Jennifer worked on staff at a wide variety of arts and cultural organizations, most recently as Development Director for Art Therapy Studio and Education and Institutional Advancement Officer at ICA – Art Conservation (ICA), the nation’s oldest regional nonprofit conservation center. In that role, Jennifer served as preservation officer for the Midwest region, helping museums, libraries, archives, universities, and other collecting institutions extend the lifespan of their artworks and artifacts. Jennifer also served on the board of the Ohio Museums Association for 15 years, including a two-year term as President.
In 2007, Jennifer founded her curatorial consulting firm, Illumine Creative Solutions, LLC. Through her practice, Jennifer helps organizations, corporations, and individuals, apply best practices as they grow and refine collections, reduce risk, prepare for the unexpected, and plan for a sustainable, intergenerational legacy.
Outside of her client work, Jennifer serves as Board Chair for Camp Wakonda in Sherrodsville, Ohio, Co-Chair of the Memorial Committee and Archivist at Fairmount Presbyterian Church in Cleveland Heights, and volunteers in the Shaker Heights schools where her daughters are in the 9th and 12th grades. She enjoys reading, skiing, sailing, and researching her family history, which includes several ancestors accused of witchcraft during the Salem hysteria of 1692. You can find her posts on Instagram as the HeritageWitch.
