Curatorial Staff & Board of Trustees

Jessica Powers joined the San Antonio Museum of Art in 2006 and serves as Chief Curator and Gilbert M. Denman, Jr., Curator of Art of the Ancient Mediterranean World. She has curated Roman Landscapes: Visions of Nature and Myth from Rome and Pompeii (2023), 40 Years, 40 Stories: Treasures and New Discoveries from SAMA’s Collection (2021), and Antinous, the Emperor’s Beloved: Investigating a Roman Portrait (2017), as well as major reinstallations of SAMA’s Greek and Roman galleries. Her recent publications include the exhibition catalogue accompanying Roman Landscapes and several essays on the display of art in Roman houses and on Roman art in museums. She was the 2017-2018 Kress Foundation/AAMC Foundation Affiliated Fellow at the American Academy in Rome, and previously served on the Archaeological Institute of America's Museums and Exhibitions Committee. Powers holds a bachelor's degree in art and archaeology from Princeton University and a doctorate in classical archaeology from the University of Michigan. Before joining SAMA she held positions at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Princeton University Art Museum and the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology.

Lana Meador joined the curatorial department in May 2015. She received her bachelor’s degree in English from The University of Texas at Austin and master’s degree in Art History from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, where she concentrated on contemporary art. Prior to her position at the San Antonio Museum of Art, Meador held the Semmes Foundation Internship in Museum Studies at the McNay Art Museum (San Antonio, TX) and contributed to the e-publications French & Michigan and …might be good. At SAMA,  Meador was co-curator of the exhibitions Of Country and Culture: The Lam Collection of Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Art (2017) and Intercambios: Modernist Photography in Mexico from the Permanent Collection (2017); curator of Marilyn Lanfear: Material Memory (2018); and co-curator of Capturing the Moment: Photographs from the Marie Brenner and Ernest Pomerantz Collection (2019) and Texas Women: A New History of Abstract Art (2020).

Lynley McAlpine joined the San Antonio Museum of Art in 2017 and currently serves as the Associate Curator of Provenance Research, investigating the history of the Museum's collections. She curated the exhibition A Roman Portrait from Germany in Texas (2022-2023). McAlpine previously held fellowships at SAMA from The Association of Art Museum Directors/Kress Foundation, the Gilbert M. Denman, Jr. Trust, and the Mellon Foundation. Before joining SAMA, she held positions at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology. McAlpine has a doctorate in classical art and archaeology from the University of Michigan. She has published articles on luxury and painting from Pompeii and exotic marble in ancient Roman architecture, as well as a book on collectors of artworks now at SAMA titled Let Us Now Not Boast of Our Worldly Possessions: Provenance Stories from the San Antonio Museum of Art.

Kristopher Driggers serves as the Associate Curator of Latin American Art. A specialist in art of the ancient Americas, he has curated exhibitions and authored publications on topics such as textiles from the Andes, Maya visual narratives, and the work of contemporary artists in dialogue with ancient American traditions. He also studies the history of the collecting and circulation of ancient American art in the United States, especially in the Southwest. Driggers was previously the Associate Curator, Bernard and Jeanette Schmidt Curator of Latin American Art at the Tucson Museum of Art, where he worked from 2019–2024. He holds a PhD in art history from the University of Chicago and a BA in history of art from Yale University. He has presented research at conferences at Denver Art Museum, Getty Research Institute, the American Alliance of Museums, and the Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, among others. Committed to sharing and collaboratively creating knowledge in his practice, he has taught art history at the University of Arizona, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, and University of Chicago. Driggers grew up in San Antonio and is delighted to curate a Latin American art collection profoundly connected to the heritage of his home city.

Mai Yamaguchi joined the San Antonio Museum of Art as Coates-Cowden-Brown Associate Curator of Asian Art in 2025. Previously she served as Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Curator of Japanese and Korean Art at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia). During her tenure there, she organized several special exhibitions, including The Art of Literacy in Early Modern Japan (2023), which explored the interplay of visual and textual literacy through rare printed and hand-painted books, prints, and scrolls. Her most recent show, Catch of the Day: Humans and Marine Animals in Japan (2024), focused on the connection between Japanese artists and the sea.

Mai obtained her BA from the University of Chicago in Art History and Romance Language and Literatures and received her MA and PhD in Art and Archaeology from Princeton University. Her dissertation, Paintings, Bound: Printed Books of Pictures in Nineteenth-Century Japan, examined how readers engaged with and developed visual literacy through printed books of pictures in nineteenth-century Japan and how they were later adapted abroad. Her research has been supported by Fulbright Japan, the Harvard-Yenching Library, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 
 

Marion Oettinger, Jr. is a cultural anthropologist and art historian who specializes in Latin American art and culture. Between 2005 and 2011, he served as the Kelso Director of San Antonio Museum of Art, and returned to his previous position of Curator of Latin American Art in 2011. He is the author of numerous books and articles and has lectured widely throughout the United States, Europe and Latin America. His most recent books include the schlolarly catalogue for his 2018 exhibition San Antonio 1718: Art from Mexico; Folk Treasures of Mexico: The Nelson A. Rockefeller Collection (2010); Retratos: 2000 Years of Latin American Portraits (2004); and The Folk Art of Spain and the Americas: El Alma del Pueblo (1992). Oettinger has taught at Cornell University, Occidental College, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has been the recipient of Fulbright, NEH, NEA, National Geographic Society, and American Philosophical Society grants. In 2010, Oettinger received the Van Deren Coke Lifetime Achievement Award in Spanish Colonial Art and Folk Art. In 2018 he became Curator Emeritus of Latin American Art. Oettinger retired in June 2018.

Emily J. Sano joined the San Antonio Museum of Art in January 2016 as the Coates-Cowden-Brown Senior Advisor for Asian Art. Previously, she served as director of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and presided over the planning, design, and construction that moved the Asian Art Museum from Golden Gate Park to the Civic Center. Prior to San Francisco, she was the Deputy Director and Chief Curator of Non-Western Art at the Dallas Museum of Art. She took her first museum post in 1979 at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth.
In 2008, Sano received the Order of the Rising Sun, Golden Rays, and Neck Ribbon, bestowed by the Japanese Government for outstanding work in promoting the arts and culture of Japan. For the past eight years she has served on the selection committee for the Luce Scholars Abroad program and has served since 2007 on the Board of Directors for the Japanese Art Society of America. Sano guides the work of the Asian Department in reinstallations and exhibits, including the outstanding 2017 exhibition Heaven and Hell: Salvation and Retribution in Pure Land Buddhism. Sano retired in March 2024.