EARLY YEARS 

Maida R. Milone was born in Pittsburgh, PA.  She loved art and artmaking from a very early age.  In fact, it was at the age of nine that Maida spied a painting that she fell in love with while heading up an escalator at a department store with her mother.  She urged her parents to buy it, and they agreed and hung the piece above her piano, so that she could be inspired by it while practicing.  (It remains a part of her art collection and hangs in her living room today.)  

Maida enjoyed art classes in elementary and middle school and could often be found spending lunchtime with Mrs. George, her art teacher at Colfax School, talking about art.   

After graduation from Taylor Allderdice High School, she attended Chatham College (now Chatham University) and the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned her B.A. degree in Philosophy.   

CAREER AS A LAWYER 

Maida graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and then served as a law clerk to The Late Honorable John F. Gerry of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.  Her time as a law clerk was followed by several years as a litigation associate at a Philadelphia law firm before she decided to move in-house into the Pharmaceutical Industry. 

Maida relished her role as an in-house lawyer and the opportunity to work closely with and advise all the companies’ employees, and she blossomed. She served as Senior Counsel for several companies, and eventually became General Counsel for the Dupont Merck Pharmaceutical Company. 

PASSION FOR NONPROFITS 

With her son growing up and Merck exiting the joint venture with DuPont, Maida decided to use her accumulated experience and skills to pursue her passion for nonprofits and help them advance their missions. 

She began her nonprofit career at the University of Pennsylvania, helping to establish a business development organization, before beginning her tenure at The Center for Emerging Visual Artists (CFEVA), formerly Creative Artist Network, where she served as President & CEO. 

During her dedicated and transformative tenure at CFEVA, Maida was a pioneer in determining how career development and business marketing could give artists control over their own paths and their subsequent success. Her business and corporate experience was instrumental in how CFEVA perceived and developed new approaches for supporting artistic practice.  

Maida used corporate strategies and her legal chops to help artists support themselves and their practices before most were considering those methods. Giving artists independence and autonomy over their careers was not yet common practice. On her watch, CFEVA's longstanding and most public program, Philadelphia Open Studio Tours™ (POST™), expanded into what is now an integral part of the city's arts calendar each year. Under her management, CFEVA's Board of Directors grew substantially, and she developed earned income revenue streams that continue to be successful today. With her inspiration, CFEVA's custom exhibition program brought new works into Philadelphia's corporate environments for the first time. Some of these most visible partnerships established over many years include Morgan Lewis, Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, and The Sonesta Hotel Center City. 

Most recently she led the non-profit Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts (PMC). And prior to PMC, she had CEO and Senior Directorship positions at the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and the Philadelphia Art Alliance, among others.  

ART IS EVERYTHING 

Before joining CFEVA, Maida’s curatorial efforts were devoted to choosing art for her own extensive collection and installing it in her home. (This love of art and passion for collecting and installing it led to Maida being featured on the TV show articulate with Jim Cotter on WHYY.) And once she joined CFEVA, she had several opportunities each year to plan and install exhibitions for the public. 

More recently, Maida’s lifelong interest in all things creative led her to Moore College of Art & Design, where she completed the Interior Design Studies program. Not surprisingly, in her designs, she always refused to treat art as secondary to furnishings, instead striving to make art central to every space. 

 In 2021, Maida’s contributions to the region’s arts community were recognized with the Arts + Business Council’s Leadership Award.   

Now that she has stepped back from non-profit management, she has the time to use her extensive experience and design education to focus on curating collections for individuals and exhibitions in art spaces throughout the region.  She founded My Personal Curator LLC to advance those efforts.  

While her patronage of so many regional artists -- she has hundreds of works in her own collection -- was born out of love for their talent, over the years, Maida has also become increasingly interested in supporting artistic endeavors in Greater Philadelphia and improving Philadelphia's cultural and regional art spaces for citizens and visitors alike.