Blaffer Art Museum Names Laura Augusta as Director and Chief Curator

The Blaffer Art Museum has named Dr. Laura Augusta as its next Jane Dale Owen Director and Chief Curator. At the beginning of the year, Steven Matijcio left his role at the museum and since his departure, Linda Shearer has acted as Interim Director.

Laura Augusta

Since 2022, Ms. Augusta has served as the first full-time Curator at The Stanlee & Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts at the University of Texas at El Paso. In this capacity, she led the development and production of exhibitions, managed the day-to-day operations of the a five-person curatorial team, and built interdisciplinary programming with internal and external partners. Additionally, she collaborated with a 16-person team, under the leadership of Kerry Doyle, Director of the Ruben Center, and mentored numerous undergraduate interns in curatorial practice, exhibition installation, and collections management. One of her major undertakings has been the launch of a multi-year exhibition program focused on showcasing contemporary Central American art, which received a $100,000 Andy Warhol Foundation Multi-Year Programs Grant this summer. Over the past three years, over the past year, the Rubin Center has received nearly $800,000 in grants and fellowships from the IMLS, the Mellon Foundation, and the Andy Warhol Foundation. 

Along with her work as a curator, Ms. Augusta also brings extensive experience as an educator and writer. She has served as an oral historian for the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution; as developmental editor for the Toward Equity in Publishing initiative of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and its American Art Journal; as a member of the editorial board for Southwest Contemporary; and as a contributing editor and staff writer for Arts and Culture Texas. 

Earlier this year, Ms. Augusta was selected as the juror for Lawndale’s 2024 iteration of The Big Show. She has deep ties to Houston, where she was a Core Fellow at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston from 2016 to 2018 and worked in various roles at FotoFest; Sicardi, Ayers & Bacino Gallery; and the Glassell School of Art between 2012 and 2022. She holds a PhD and an MA, both in Art History, from the University of Texas at Austin and a BA in English and Studio Art from Georgia College and State University.

Andrew Davis, the Dean of the Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts at the University of Houston, told Glasstire, “We are thrilled that Laura Augusta will relocate back to Houston after having been an integral part of its visual arts community for a number of years. Her wide experience as a writer and critic, her years of management experience, and her object-based philosophical and interpretive approach — combined with a vision to position the Blaffer Museum as a leader in addressing current national issues through contemporary art — all make her an ideal fit as the next Jane Dale Owen Director and Chief Curator at the Blaffer.”

Ms. Augusta will begin her appointment on November 4, 2024, and Ms. Shearer will continue as Interim Director until November 15, 2024. 

October 4, 2024: This article has been updated to better reflect Laura Augusta’s role within the larger team at the Rubin Center.