Mary Kershaw

Mary Kershaw joined the Museum of Northern Arizona as Executive Director and CEO in June 2019.

After 25 years in museums in England, Mary returned to the US as director of the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe where she developed a more ambitious, collection-centered, audience-focused program and celebrated the museum’s centennial with an award-winning refurbishment of the historic museum and a $10m capital campaign for a new contemporary art venue. She served as Director for 9 years.

As Director of Collections for York Museums Trust in the UK Mary oversaw the curatorial team responsible for encyclopedic Designated collections. Select projects were the restoration of York Art Gallery and Yorkshire Museum; developing state-of-the-art storage and a deliverable documentation plan for over 5 million objects. As part of the bigger museum family, Mary was a Board Member for the Museums Association and numerous regional bodies, served on the national Accreditation panel and two parliamentary advisory panels, and was curatorial advisor to four independent museums in Yorkshire. International experience includes projects with the UK, Lithuania, Poland and Germany.

Mary was awarded an FMA, Fellow of the Museums Association (UK), in recognition of an advanced level of achievement in museum work. Outside of museums, Mary occasionally works in film production and has a page on IMDb.com.