{"id":102538,"date":"2026-04-13T09:09:45","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T16:09:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=102538"},"modified":"2026-04-26T13:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T20:39:09","slug":"return-of-the-curator-jeff-lambson-and-utahs-next-phase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/return-of-the-curator-jeff-lambson-and-utahs-next-phase\/","title":{"rendered":"Return of the Curator: Jeff Lambson and Utah\u2019s Next Phase"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art’s new deputy director Jeff Lambson demonstrates NEHMA\u2019s visible storage system, where paintings can be accessed for study and research.<\/p><\/div>\n

When curator Jeff Lambson first arrived in Utah in 2007 to become the first curator of contemporary art at Brigham Young University\u2019s Museum of Art, it felt like a moment. Contemporary art in the state was gaining momentum, and institutions that had not always been in conversation with one another suddenly seemed to be part of a shared project. \u201cIt was exciting,\u201d he says. \u201cThere was this moment \u2026 it felt like we were still a small community, but we\u2019d gotten big enough, and there was starting to be enough people and enough money. It felt like something could happen.\u201d<\/h4>\n

Now Lambson has returned to Utah in a new role, as deputy director and contemporary curator at the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art at Utah State University. He has come back to a different art landscape: one with bigger institutions, more developed programming, and a larger population, but also one that, in his telling, has lost some of the intimacy and interconnectedness that once made it feel possible for a few people to help shift the culture. At NEHMA, he is stepping into that changed landscape at a moment of expansion, helping shape not only exhibitions but the museum\u2019s next phase of growth.<\/h4>\n

Museum work has defined much of Lambson\u2019s adult life. After studying Art History and Curatorial Studies at Brigham Young University, his first \u201creal, real job,\u201d as he puts it, was at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C. His second day there was September 11, 2001. Six years later, he and his wife, Ann, who has also spent her career in museums, came west. He joined the BYU Museum of Art as its first contemporary art curator.<\/h4>\n

The position itself was new. \u201c[Museum director] Campbell Gray really wanted to have contemporary art,\u201d Lambson says. \u201cThere wasn\u2019t. I had no budget, so Campbell said, \u2018Okay, let\u2019s\u2014profits from the gift shop\u2014we\u2019ll put that towards contemporary art.\u201d<\/h4>\n