Crystal Bridges Names Courtenay Finn Chief Curator as Expansion Accelerates
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and the Momentary in Bentonville, Arkansas, have appointed Courtenay Finn as their next chief curator, a move that places an experienced museum leader at the center of the institutions’ next phase of growth. Finn will begin on August 24 and report to Austen Bailly, who was promoted in October to deputy director of curatorial affairs.
Finn joins Crystal Bridges from the Orange County Museum of Art, where she currently serves as chief curator and director of programs. Her tenure there included the opening of OCMA’s building, a 200 percent increase in visitorship, and the addition of more than 100 works to the collection. Among the artists acquired were Joan Brown, Derek Fordjour, Luchita Hurtado, and Yoshitomo.
Her curatorial background spans several institutions: moCa Cleveland in Ohio, the Aspen Art Museum in Colorado, and Art in General in New York. At OCMA, she co-curated the 2025 California Biennial: Desperate, Scared, But Social and organized solo exhibitions devoted to Alice Neel, Tony Lewis, Yu Ji, and Fred Eversley. She also mounted the two-artist exhibition Deux Femmes: Leonor Fini & Leonora Carrington.
The appointment arrives just weeks after Crystal Bridges opened a major expansion that added 114,000 square feet of new galleries, education space, and programming areas to its original 200,000-square-foot footprint. The museum also announced two additional leadership hires: Ryan Owen as chief development officer, who started on June 15, and Shayne Hart as chief communications and marketing officer, who joined in February. Finn, Owen, and Hart will all serve on the museum’s executive council.
Rod Bigelow, Crystal Bridges’ executive director, said the new hires arrive at “a transformative moment for the institution,” adding that each brings “a distinct perspective, deep expertise, and a shared commitment to our mission.” The leadership changes suggest that Crystal Bridges is pairing physical expansion with a broader effort to sharpen its curatorial and institutional identity.
