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Meagan Evans, manager and curator of the newly renamed St. George Museum of Art, inside the museum’s upper gallery.

The first thing Meagan Evans did when she took the reins at the former St. George Art Museum this summer was change its name. “St. George Museum of Art” doesn’t alter the meaning , but “St. George MoA” rings a bit truer than “SGAM,” and a rebranding is always a way to indicate new leadership and a new vision. A new logo, which incorporates distinctive architectural elements from the museum’s interior, is part of that rebrand and you’ll see it on the I-15 billboard Evans has in the works—all part of her efforts to get more bodies in the doors of the 35-year-old institution.

Evans, who grew up in Heber, Utah, says she wasn’t much of a museum goer as a child. There might have been one field trip to a museum before she enrolled in a concurrent art history class in high school, which was followed by a trip to Europe. This sparked her interest, but it was a Martha Peacock class at Brigham Young University, where Evans was studying education, that lit the fire. “It was Martha,” she says. “There was an enthusiasm that she had for the topic that she was teaching that excited me.”

After earning her bachelor’s degree in art history and curatorial studies at BYU, Evans stayed on to work on curatorial projects with professor James Swenson and others and completed a master’s degree in comparative studies with an emphasis in art history. She wrote her thesis on California painter Grace Carpenter Hudson, best known for her nearly 700 portraits of the Pomo people of northern California completed at the turn of the 20th century. This led to Evans’ decision to continue studying at the University of Oklahoma, home to the only doctoral program devoted to the art of the American West, where she also studied Native American art history. “There’s a lot of really unique overlap in Norman,” she says. “I moved out there and started a new chapter of my academic trajectory, moving out of Utah but continuing to study its art—and very much wanting to return to the Utah art scene.”

She wasn’t expecting to come back quite so soon—she’s still in the dissertation stage of her Ph.D.—but when the opportunity at St. George came up, she jumped at the chance. It felt like a natural fit. Like many Utahns from the north, she had spent plenty of time visiting St. George while growing up, and has family there now. Her husband, an entrepreneur who runs a custom soccer-jersey company from home, was flexible enough to relocate with her and the couple’s 15-month-old daughter. “Having a daughter has given me a whole new perspective on museums and art,” Evans says. “It’s such a joy to watch her engage, there’s something really special about ‘seeing it through her eyes.’ She’s just over a year old, but when our last exhibition was up, every time she visits me at work she gravitates to the same Kathryn Knudsen piece, points at it, and grins. I’m excited for her to be the kind of kid who grows up going to the art museum.”

As a newcomer who is also a native Utahn, Evans occupies a strategic middle ground between insider and outsider. She sees the museum’s mission as both educational and civic in purpose. “I want the museum to become a destination,” she says, “so that when you visit St. George, the museum is part of the experience—you can see the exhibits, join programs, and make it part of your visit.” She also wants it to be a home for locals. Too often, she hears locals respond with surprise when she tells them where she works: “Oh, we have an art museum?” “That’s really my motivation,” she says. “There’s so much untapped potential with this community.”

The museum, which opened in 1995 and has occupied its current building since 1997, is run by the city and primarily supported by taxpayer funding, supplemented by occasional grants. Evans is both the curator and the museum’s manager, so she works closely with municipal authorities to blend their goals with her own. “Attendance rates would be number one,” she says of her immediate goals. “My job is to get people in.”

She looks to Cedar City’s Southern Utah Museum of Art as an inspiration. “SUMA has grown so much in the last decade under the guidance of Jessica Kinsey. When she started, she was the only full-time employee, as far as I understand it. And now there’s a whole team. And when you see the Welcome to Cedar City sign, it has the Southern Utah Museum of Art on it, and it’s just such an integral part of their community—unlike 10 years ago when it was in the hallway of the building across the street. So I’m trying to take her approach to how to reach more people, expand our presence in the community, and use the space as a hub for arts and culture.” 

Her vision emphasizes both inclusion and quality. “We’re not trying to be an ivory tower,” she says. “I want people who’ve never been to a museum to feel this space is for them.” She plans to introduce printed guides and audio options tailored to different levels of art familiarity, helping newcomers engage with contemporary work. At the same time, she wants to expand the conversation about what “art of the American West” can encompass. “We’re redefining what art of the American West means—it’s more than red rock landscapes and cowboys.”

Evans’ curatorial interests center on contemporary Utah artists, Western artists with Utah ties, and both historic and contemporary Native American art. She wants to be in conversation with artists and art institutions across the state.

Asked what she’d most like to collect—if money were no object—Evans doesn’t hesitate: Eugene Tapahe, the Navajo photographer and multimedia artist whose work celebrates land and culture, is her top choice. “I would buy everything that he has right now,” she says, recalling an encounter with Tapahe at Utah Arts & Museums’ statewide annual in Cedar City. She also hopes to track down a painting by Edith Hamlin for the permanent collection. Another artist she hopes to feature at the museum is Phoenix artist Angela Ellsworth, known for exploring Utah cultural history and women’s experiences through contemporary sculpture and performance. “She talked about how small Utah communities are where she thinks her art can have the most impact,” Evans says. “I would love to feature her here.”

Evans also wants the museum itself to grow physically and conceptually. She envisions transforming the block surrounding the building—sometimes called Hope Hill—into a small arts campus with classrooms, expanded collections storage, and outdoor programming space. “There are signs downtown that say ‘St. George Arts District,’ and there’s no art down there,” she says with a laugh. “I’d love for this to be the arts district. You can spend an afternoon exploring the gallery, then take a class in the courtyard.”

The second-floor exhibition space at the St. George Museum of Art, transformed by artist Stephanie Leitch’s airy, architectural installations.

Meanwhile, the museum is already buzzing with activity, even if not everyone recognizes it. One recent patron remarked that there was nothing on exhibit upstairs, where Stephanie Leitch’s whisper-thin works float in an all-white space. “These beams have been under-utilized,” she says approvingly of how the museum’s second-floor exhibition space has been transformed. “We’re really happy with how it turned out.” Portraits by Kirsten Holt Beitler—bright confections that bring the selfie age into a portrait tradition that stretches back to the early Renaissance—are downstairs. Fall brings the annual Día de los Muertos pop-up celebration on November 1, followed by Light the Night, the museum’s winter kickoff event on December 6. This year, the event will coincide with a major 35th-anniversary exhibition showcasing works from the permanent collection by artists like Roland Lee, Patricia Gurwitz, Gilmore Scott, Brian Kershisnik, Minerva Teichert, Maynard Dixon, Dorthea Lange, Mahonri Young and others. “I’m hoping it will bring people in to celebrate the history and the future of the institution.”  Evans’ first chance to put her own curatorial spin on things will come in 2026 when the museum will host work by Megan Knobloch Geilman, Samantha Killinen, Aziza Abdieva, Ben Steele.

At every exhibition, class, or tour, Evans hopes to share some of that enthusiasm she learned from Martha Peacock as a relative art neophyte. “It’s something I try to do when I teach college students, and when I lead tours here at the museum, and when I present things about the museum’s mission to community members—to really try to have that tangible enthusiasm for what I do, because you have so many people, including college freshmen, who haven’t been exposed to art history or the arts very much. I want to introduce it in a way that feels both accessible and exciting.”

And she hopes to do it for a long time. “I see the St. George Museum of Art as a place where I can make a meaningful, lasting impact. I’m inspired by the museum’s potential and the vibrant, evolving cultural landscape of southern Utah. I intend to remain in this role as long as I continue to grow and contribute to the museum’s mission.”

You’ll find more information about the St. George Museum of Art at stgeorgemoa.com.

Shawn Rossiter

The founder of Artists of Utah and editor of its online magazine, 15 Bytes, Shawn Rossiter has undergraduate degrees in English, French and Italian Literature and studied Comparative Literature in graduate school before pursuing a career in art.