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Brian J. Lang | Director of Curatorial Affairs | Academy Art Museum
Brian J. Lang brings more than 30 years of museum and curatorial leadership experience to the Academy Art Museum (AAM). Previously the chief curator at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, he now leads exhibitions, collections strategy, and long-term planning at AAM, including development of the Freeman Annex & Hormel Research Center.
What is your role at the Academy Art Museum?
I oversee the museum’s exhibitions and curatorial direction, which means shaping what we show, how we show it, what the museum collects, and how everything connects. It’s a mix of research, storytelling, and collaboration—working with artists, my colleagues, our collection—and forging new pathways to create exhibitions that feel engaging, relevant, and grounded in a larger narrative.
What excites you most about leading major exhibitions, such as Under the Mexican Sky?
For me, it’s about bringing together works that don’t often get seen together and creating a new way of understanding them. Under the Mexican Sky looks at a moment when artists were rethinking photography, particularly American photographers working in Mexico in the 1920s and 1930s. What’s especially meaningful is that the exhibition is rooted in works from our permanent collection, which now includes more than 1,700 objects. This allows us to build exhibitions from within—drawing on the depth of what we already hold while placing those works in a broader cultural and historical context.
Is there an underlying idea connecting this season’s exhibitions?
This summer’s exhibitions are loosely organized around the idea of “We the People,” which feels especially relevant as we approach the 250th anniversary of the United States. In partnership with the Maryland 250 and Talbot 250 Commissions, that framework helped shape the season.
We’re thinking about identity, lived experience, and labor—who is represented, whose stories are told, and how those narratives have been shaped over time. Under the Mexican Sky fits into that in an interesting way, looking at cultural exchange and how artists’ perspectives shift across borders.
What ties it together is the idea that there isn’t a single story of America; there are many. Our goal is to create space for those different perspectives—both within the galleries and beyond—and for visitors to draw their own connections.
Academy Art Museum | 106 South Street | Easton, MD 21601 | 410-822-2787 | academyartmuseum.org
