A graduate of Wisconsin’s Beloit College, Wally Mason is happy to be back in the Midwest. He earned his M.F.A. at Indiana University.

For only the second time since the doors opened in 1984, the Patrick and Beatrice Haggerty Museum of Art has a new director. Wally Mason came to Marquette from the University of Maine Museum of Art, where he was director for 11 years. He succeeds Dr. Curtis Carter, who returned to a faculty position.
Mason couldn’t resist the opportunity to join a museum with the Haggerty’s status. “Curtis did such a fabulous job with the museum that it has a national reputation. When I told people about the job, they said, ‘You need to go there, that’s Broadway,’” he says. “I think everyone sold Marquette short. It’s much more wonderful than I was led to believe.”

With a new director, Mason says, will come new ideas. He plans to build collaborations to connect the museum’s resources to students’ interests, faculty research and academic programs. “There is a dynamic within a university community that’s unique; a higher level of inquiry and curiosity. You can take more risks in terms of content of programming than a civic museum. That’s part of the academic institution’s mission, and that’s exciting for me,” he says.