Dr. Magleby served as Director of the Museum of Art from 2012 to 2021.
With gratitude and bittersweetness, we announce the retirement of Dr. Mark Allen Magleby, Emeritus Director of the BYU Museum of Art, who served as our Director from 2012 to 2021. His retirement concludes 26 years of service at Brigham Young University.
"All of us at the Museum will feel the loss of his presence keenly. He has been a wonderful colleague, mentor, art historian, and member of the University family for 26 years," said the Museum's current director, Janalee Emmer. “He oversaw countless exhibitions, meaningful acquisitions, and many staff transitions. From Beauty and Belief to Sacred Gifts, Mahonri Young to Maynard Dixon, he kept the museum moving forward to greater achievements. His generosity of spirit, good humor, and love of great art will be something that we will deeply miss. Truly, Mark’s retirement has come too soon."
Mark says he "stumbled upon art history as a discipline," during his undergraduate study at BYU, where he studied with mentors like Martin Raish, Mark Hamilton, and Martha Peacock. After receiving his Bachelor's Degree in 1989, he earned an MA and PhD from Ohio State University. He returned to BYU as a Professor of Art History in 1997, and was named the MOA's third Director, succeeding Campbell Gray.
"Initially," his wife Julie says, "Mark wasn't interested in museum administration at all. He's a teacher from his bones and in his heart. He always wanted to teach, teach, teach. Once he became a professor, he loved coming over to the Museum, and he was friends with people at the Museum like Dawn Pheysey and Campbell Gray. And so we kind of came into the museum world a little bit sideways."
Looking back at his career, Mark recalls, "It has been really exciting to see exhibitions with greater representation of people of color and of women artists. That's something I tried to prioritize, and I think that those exhibitions have been very popular." In particular, he cites exhibitions like Loving Devotion, Nina Katchadourian: Curiouser, Embracing Diverse Voices, and A Studio of Her Own, as well as acquisitions including Marianne Stokes' Angels Entertaining the Holy Child and Henry Osawa Tanner's At the Gates. Nevertheless, the art is not what he says he'll miss most.
"It's the camaraderie," he says. "The people who have come to this Museum have been brought here, and I’ve been very appreciative of everyone. I couldn’t have found any better group of people to work with."
Those here at the MOA will miss his presence very much as well. "I am incredibly grateful for my association with Mark over the years," Director Emmer added. "I can confidently say that I wouldn’t be where I am today without his support. As a student, he was the first to suggest to me that I get my doctoral degree and believed that I could do it. That was simply transformative for me as I considered my future. And then many years later, when I was a faculty member teaching at Ohio Wesleyan University, Mark reached out and encouraged me to consider returning to BYU and becoming part of the MOA team. I know I am not unique in being one of many former students that Mark encouraged and believed in. He has a special way for making people feel seen and cared for. He offers true friendship and has been a model scholar-disciple through the years. We will miss him at the Museum and wish him all the best in this new chapter.”
All who wish to send their regards to Mark may send messages to riley_lewis@byu.edu. You can get to know Mark better by listening to him talk about art in the video playlist below.
