Close-up: Christian Waguespack Trades the Southwest for a New Role in the Pacific Northwest
Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner, WA -
With a sterling academic background at the University of Arizona and University of New Mexico, Christian Waguespack brings considerable experience to his new tasks as curator of Northwest Art and director of curatorial affairs at the Museum of Northwest Art, roles he assumed earlier this year.
He also brings a marked enthusiasm for his geographic transfer from the high-mountain deserts of the Southwest to the rainy coastal areas of Puget Sound. “The Pacific Northwest is somewhere I wanted to be: the striking beauty of the natural environment, the forests, sea, mist and rain, all particularly appeal to me,” he noted in a recent interview.
With special enthusiasms for photography, glass and Indigenous art, the erstwhile curator of 20th-century art at the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe also worked at the legendary Center for Creative Photography. “When I saw a position open at the Museum of Northwest Art… I jumped at the opportunity … [now] I am very excited about engaging the wider tapestry of Northwest art history and working with contemporary artists here.
“I see a great deal of promise in the regional art scene here … and the artists whom I have met and learned about thus far [demonstrate] a remarkable openness to experimentation and an authentic expression of their own personal visions, which I find refreshing.” Commenting on his plans for the permanent collection, Waguespack added, “In terms of how we are actively working to rethinking how we can … build our Native and Latinx collections,… I would also like to see more new media come into the collection, particularly video and sound art.”
Viewers can see his curatorial direction in the exhibition Vitamin P:NW: Recent Painting in the Pacific Northwest, a survey of the late painter William Turner (both to Jan 11, 2026), and an ongoing reinstallation of the permanent collection.
