PMA News: Museum Promotes Shalini Le Gall To Chief Curator

The PMA is proud to announce the promotion of Shalini Le Gall to Chief Curator, Susan Donnell and Harry W. Konkel Curator of European Art, and Director of Academic Engagement. Le Gall will conceive and develop exhibitions, gallery installations, and programs that will enhance community engagement, access to the PMA collection, and the range of exhibitions the museum can present.  

Le Gall joined the PMA in early 2020 as the Susan Donnell and Harry W. Konkel Curator of European Art and Director of Academic Engagement after five years at the Colby College Museum of Art, where she worked as the Linde Family Foundation Curator of Academic Programs. 

“In her additional role as Chief Curator, we look forward to Shalini leveraging her experience at Colby to create more opportunities for interdisciplinary teaching and learning, community outreach, and art-based social impact, as well find new and exciting ways to engage our European program and develop our vision for European art at the PMA,” says Mark Bessire, the Judy and Leonard Lauder Director of the Portland Museum of Art. “Le Gall’s experience and expertise will lead the museum through its new strategic plan, and I’m looking forward to having her on board in a new capacity.” 

Le Gall has a Ph.D. in Art History from Northwestern University, specializing in 19th-century European art. She has lectured widely on topics ranging from European art to museum pedagogy, and her publications include essays on the French photographer Charles Marville and the British artist William Holman Hunt, as well as forthcoming work on James McNeill Whistler and Mary Cassatt. Le Gall has spent time abroad, teaching courses in 19th- and 20th-century French painting and museum studies for NYU in Paris.