Student : Faculty : Alumni : Local : National

Michael J. Beam
MFA '98
Curator of Exhibitions and Collections
Castellani Art Museum
www.niagara.edu/cam

Michael Beam is currently Curator of Exhibitions and Collections at the Castellani Art Museum, Niagara University, New York as well as Adjunct Faculty in the Fine Arts Department–Courses include Museum Studies and Issues in Contemporary Art (collections based).

He received his MFA from SIUC with concentrations in contemporary art theory and painting and a BFA from California University of Pennsylvania.   Beam has 15 years experience as a museum professional.  Before relocating to the Castellani Art Museum, he served as the Director of Visual Arts at Cedarhurst Center for the Arts, Mitchell Museum and Sculpture Park, Mt. Vernon, Illinois.  In addition, he held positions in the exhibitions departments at both the Missouri Historical Society Museum and the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. Prior to relocating to the Midwest, Beam worked in the curatorial and exhibitions departments of the Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.

His area of concentration is 19th and 20th century American art, particularly Pop Art through Contemporary Art. He has spent a great deal of time producing educational programming for students and adults at the museums in which he worked in these areas.  Highlights of his curatorial experience are exhibitions created in association with Sonnabend Gallery, New York and with the Warhola Family, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  He is most recently distinguished for curating the exhibition Lesley Dill:  A Fine Line, and perhaps best known for his traveling exhibitions Jean-Michel Basquiat:  An Intimate Portrait (photographs which examine the critical pre-fame years of Basquiat) and Exquisite Corpse:  Contemporary Figurative Flameworkers Play a Surrealist Game (contemporary international glass artists illustrate the 1920’s Dadaist game Exquisite Corpse.)  

Beam’s dedication to secondary arts education earned him the CCTL Active Learning Teaching Grant Award in 2005.  This project was museum based, designed and implemented to foster integrative student learning by promoting programs and developing opportunities for students to incorporate learning across courses, university departments, and between campus and community life.

Beam has served as a juror and guest curator for numerous Buffalo/Niagara regional exhibitions including Elmwood Arts Festival, and Big Orbit Annual Member’s Exhibition; national judging includes the Mosaics Art Festival, St. Charles, Missouri, the City of Memphis Art Fair, Tennessee, and the First Brush of Spring competition, New Harmony, Indiana.