February 11, 2025

The Museum of Northwest Art

Waguespack

The Museum of Northwest Art (MoNA) named Christian Waguespack as its new director of curatorial affairs and curator of Northwest art, effective March 3. Waguespack comes to MoNA from the New Mexico Museum of Art + Vladem Contemporary in Santa Fe, where he has served as head of curatorial affairs and curator of 20th century art. Waguespack will provide strategic vision and managerial leadership to MoNA's collection, exhibition, research, and scholarship initiatives and will work to boost community engagement with the museum and its collection of Northwest Art. Waguespack has an arts-management background, having been involved in the planning, realization and opening of the Vladem Contemporary, the new gallery space of the New Mexico Museum of Art dedicated to exhibit post-war and contemporary art. MoNA's new position of director of curatorial affairs and curator of Northwest art is made possible by the M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust. The trust's mission is to enrich the quality of life in the Pacific Northwest by providing grants to organizations that seek to strengthen the region's educational, social, cultural, and spiritual base in creative and sustainable ways. It was created by the will of the late Melvin J. Murdock, who was a co-founder of Tektronix, in Beaverton, Oregon, and a resident of Vancouver. Since its establishment in 1975, with a bequest of about $91 million, the trust has focused its grantmaking efforts primarily in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington.