Casa del Herrero Appoints Nicole C. Caldwell to New Curator Position

by Joanne A Calitri

Casa del Herrero (CDH) has appointed Nicole C. Caldwell as their new Director of Collections, Conservation & Exhibitions, a role created specifically for her by Board Treasurer Gary Bradhering, which calls in her educational and field work expertise. She is responsible for the care, conservation, and interpretation of Casa del Herrero’s Steedman Family Collection of 15th and 16th century fine and decorative arts, furnishings, and archival papers.

Caldwell came to the CDH from her Head Curator position at Hearst Castle where she maintained and preserved its art and antiquities collections. A fourth-generation Californian, she has 14 years of experience in the cultural heritage sector working in museums and historic homes in four countries: Israel, Italy, Palestine, and the U.S. Caldwell holds two master degrees – a Master of Arts in Archeology with distinction from the University of Oxford England Saint Bennett’s College, and an M.A. in Art Conservation from Studio Arts College International in Florence, Italy. She also has a B.A. in Archeology and minor in art from Cabrillo College Santa Cruz, CSUS.

We met at CDH to talk about her new role. Curiously when I arrived, she was reviewing projects with the Founding Trustee of Casa del Herrero, George Steedman Bass, who had flown in to meet with her. I asked him for his thoughts on the new curatorial position. He said, “I think it’s an excellent idea. The Board is doing such great new things this year. I’m an architect, and I see this house as architecture, the finest Spanish Survival House in the U.S., and the garden is considered by many U.S. landscape architects as the pivotal garden where the garden traditions of France, England, and Spain come together.”

Caldwell and I then moved to the back patio. She shared that she found out about Casa del Herrero from reading a publication that noted part of Hearst’s Gothic Spanish ceiling he had in the bedroom was in the entryway of Casa del Herrero. She explained, “So I contacted Mary Levkoff, the former director of Hearst Castle who has a phenomenal background at LACMA, the MET, the National Gallery, and the Dorsey. We planned a road trip in March to Montecito, toured the Casa and were floored. It’s not your hidden gem, it’s really your Crown Jewel. In May, I was researching where to take my career, and went on the Casa website. There was a position I met the qualifications for, so I emailed my CV and applied. Gary Bradhering had been on my private tour and remembered me. He reached out, created this position, and I had the job within six days, so it was meant to be!”

Q. How is the Casa a miniature Hearst Castle?

A. Mary Levkoff (who also wrote the book Hearst, the Collector, and to whom I am ever indebted to for her kindness and mentorship) said to me after we first visited the Casa back in March: “It is like what Hearst would have built if he was a normal person.” The Castle and the Casa have phenomenal overlap: Both began construction in the 1920s, both were made permanent residences in the 1930s, and both were heavily