The University of Nebraska–Lincoln's Sheldon Museum of Art is welcoming two new staff members, Randy Guthmiller, associate director for learning, engagement and public practice; and Magdalena Moskalewicz, chief curator and associate director for curatorial affairs.
Both Guthmiller and Moskalewicz will be part of a senior leadership team with Susan Longhenry, Sheldon's director. They were selected after national searches led by Suzanne Tan, senior search consultant at Museum Search & Reference.
Randy Guthmiller
Guthmiller holds a Bachelor of Arts in studio art and education from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. He grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, and has had significant work experience in both museum learning and visitor experience at three major institutions in Texas. He most recently served as the manager of experiences and programs at Ruby City in San Antonio, Texas, a contemporary community art center that opened to the public in 2019. Prior to that, Guthmiller worked at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, first as an educator and then as the manager of visitor experiences. Concurrently, he served for eight years as an artist educator at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Randy to Sheldon’s team,” Longhenry said. “His uniquely integrated expertise in community engagement, academic engagement and the visitor experience aligns perfectly with our commitment to centering and deeply engaging visitors and members of both academic and non-academic communities.”
Guthmiller said he is passionate about museums, community impact, public education and the potential of collaborative and innovative community-centric approaches to museum accessibility and engagement through the lens of American art. He is excited for the opportunity to work with a museum on a university campus that also has an embedded presence in a welcoming community.
“I am honored to join Sheldon and build on its legacy of connecting the communities of Lincoln and Nebraska with some of the world’s finest artworks,” Guthmiller said. “I believe wholeheartedly in the transformative power of art, and I am committed to ensuring everyone feels at home walking our galleries and participating in our programming.”
Magdalena Moskalewicz
Moskalewicz was awarded both a doctorate and a master’s degree in art history from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland. An art historian, professor and internationally recognized curator, as well as a widely published researcher of modern and contemporary art, Moskalewicz was most recently chief curator of FRONT International, a contemporary art triennial based in Cleveland, Ohio. Before that, she served as a full-time visiting professor and associate professor, adjunct, at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, as a visiting professor at Carnegie Mellon University School of Art, and as an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral C-MAP Fellow at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In her native Poland, Moskalewicz was a visiting curator at the Zachęta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw and served as curator of the Polish Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015, among other appointments.
“Magdalena brings to the museum deep expertise and a compelling, progressive vision,” Longhenry said. “Her commitment to simultaneously honoring and reframing Sheldon's collection, and to interrogating the art history canon, will take the museum to the next level of scholarship, engagement, and impact.”
Moskalewicz believes in a curatorial practice that is inclusive and interdisciplinary; grounded in theoretical reflection and intellectually rigorous, but also strongly focused on the everyday. Moskalewicz will aim to develop exhibitions and programs at Sheldon that “reflect the complexity of America today: globally connected and relevant,” aiming to “use art as a trigger that speaks to the moment,” and “delivering socially responsive curating that is stimulating and thought-provoking.”
“I feel incredibly honored to be entrusted with the stewardship of Sheldon’s spectacular collection of modern and contemporary art and productively thrilled about expanding it,” Moskalewicz said. “It is a great privilege to be working with Sheldon’s dedicated and knowledgeable staff inside this jewel box of a museum building, and I am looking forward to my future collaborations with faculty, students and the greater Nebraska art community.”
