| Birth Date: | December 7, 1930 |
| Death Date: | December 27, 2023 |
| Birth Place: | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Nationality: | United States |
| Education: | The School of Art, Cooper Union |
| Known For: | Curator of National Museum of African Art |
| Spouse: | Warren M. Robbins |
| Elected: | Smithsonian Institution, the Robbins Center for Cross-Cultural Communication |
| Lydia Marie Puccinelli-Robbins | |
Lydia Puccinelli (born Lydia Marie Puccinelli-Robbins; December 7, 1930 – December 27, 2023) was an American exhibition designer, curatorial assistant, registrar, curator of exhibitions and of collections.
Born on December 7, 1930, Lydia Puccinelli was became interested in art in her early life. She briefly attended Carnegie Mellon University, but, discovering art's creative and expressive capabilities, she then attended the Cooper Union School of Art majoring painting and graduated in 1959.[1] She was later accepted by Yale University, while also studying painting at the Aspen School of Art in Colorado.[2] Interested in textiles, she also studied textile design and designed textiles for large American textile firms.
In 1966, Puccinelli was told that she was suitable for a position at a new museum on Capitol Hill, then known as the African Art Museum. There she met her husband Warren M. Robbins, also the founder of the African Art Museum. After she joined, Puccinelli was gradually promoted from Designer to Curator of Exhibitions. The African Art Museum initially consisted of Warren Robbins' personal collections, which include artworks from different African tribes such as Mali, Kongo, and Dogon.[3] Later, Robbins' collections would grow to 9100 pieces, all of which were managed by Puccinelli and Robbins.In 1979, when the museum was merged into the Smithsonian, Puccinelli was promoted to Curator and directed over 75 exhibitions and 3 catalogues. In 2000, she retired from the Museum.
Puccinelli received honors for her great contributions to promoting cultural communication with African art, and she personally devoted herself to the studies of African art. She visited Africa personally in 1974 and 1981. She studied African art collections in museums at Amsterdam, Belgium, Paris, London, Oxford, Vienna, and Germany, funded by the Museum Professional Fellowship grant.