San Antonio Museum of Art Announces Christine C. Brindza, PhD, as the Marie and Hugh Halff, Jr., Curator of American Art

San Antonio, TX— June 11, 2026—The San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA) is pleased to announce the appointment of Christine Crame Brindza, PhD, as the Marie and Hugh Halff, Jr., Curator of American Art. A nationally recognized curator, collaborator, and field innovator, Brindza brings more than two decades of experience in museum leadership, community based curation, and disciplinary expertise across American art, with a specialty in art of the West and Indigenous art. She will start her new role on July 27, 2026.

At SAMA, Brindza will curate the Museum’s American art collection, which spans the colonial period through the mid-twentieth century and includes portraits, landscape and still-life painting, prints and drawings, decorative arts, and marble and bronze sculpture. She will also oversee SAMA’s significant and growing Texas collection as well as the European collection, which encompasses works from the fifteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries and includes an outstanding collection of Irish silver. 

In this position, she will work collaboratively with the Latin American art and contemporary art curators in examining, reinterpreting, and exploring points of intersection in these collecting areas.

“Christine’s leadership has transformed how museums engage with artists, communities, and the histories of American art,” said Emily B. Neff, The Kelso Director at SAMA. “Her award-winning commitment to collaboration and storytelling from many viewpoints complements the strengths of our rich, diverse art collections, and will be invaluable to the San Antonio Museum of Art’s vision for the future.”

Brindza previously served as the Senior Curator and James and Louise Glasser Curator at the Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block, where she led the curatorial department and oversaw exhibitions and collections. A pioneer in community based curation, Brindza co authored Community-Based Curation: A Toolkit for Expanding Narrative and Changing Practices (2024) and co led several groundbreaking collaborative exhibitions from 2019–2025. Her work has earned major national recognition, including the Arthur H. Wolf Impact Award (2024) and the American Alliance of Museums Impact Award (2025).
“I am honored to join the San Antonio Museum of Art and to contribute to an institution with such a dynamic commitment to cultural dialogue” said Brindza. “Throughout my career, I have seen how collaborative and community‑centered approaches can expand narratives and deepen the impact of museum work. I look forward to partnering with artists, colleagues, and communities in San Antonio to build exhibitions and initiatives that expand and enrich SAMA's presentation of American art.”

Her curatorial portfolio includes more than 40 exhibitions, among them The Western Sublime (2019), More Than: Expanding Artist Identities of the American West (2022), Divergence of Legacy (2024–2025), and the major reinstallation The West Multiplied (2025).
Brindza is also an accomplished scholar, authoring and editing numerous catalogues and academic publications, including The West Multiplied (2026) and Ya Hech: Readymade in the Borderlands (2025). Her 2025 dissertation, Curatorial Considerations of Identity in Art Museums, examines equity and inclusion from the perspective of exhibiting artists.

Her grant leadership includes awards from the Luce Foundation, Terra Foundation for American Art, National Endowment for the Humanities, Institute of Museum and Library Services, and Arizona Humanities, supporting major exhibitions, research initiatives, and collection reinterpretations.

Before her tenure in Tucson, Brindza spent seven years at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, contributing to the Whitney Western Art Museum 50th anniversary reinstallation and coordinating the Frederic Remington Catalogue Raisonné Authentication Program.

Brindza holds a PhD in Art History and Education from the University of Arizona and MA and BA degrees from Duquesne University.