I worked with the Art of the Americas Department at the MFA to redesign the top floor of the American Wing, re-presenting the 20th century in a way that is more inclusive and more accurately representative of the American people.

The Galleries. The project encompassed six permanent gallery spaces and one temporary exhibition, each guided by a dedicated curator and built around its own theme: Latin America; the Southwest; Art and Jazz; War and Spirituality; Nature and Abstraction; Folk Art and Modernism; and a temporary exhibition, Touching Roots: Black Ancestral Legacies in the Americas.

Design Approach. Casework across the floor was either newly designed or adapted to align with the visual language of the broader American Wing, establishing a shared design vocabulary across the galleries. Within that overarching aesthetic, each gallery was given its own distinctive style and unique design elements to accentuate its theme—ambient music and Art Deco–patterned wallpaper in the Art and Jazz gallery, for instance, or a ceramics table display referencing Pueblo architecture in the Southwest gallery. A wall color palette limited to four colors across the permanent galleries tied the floor together, with each color used in contrast and conversation with the others to create unity while still allowing each theme its own distinction.