Megan Johnston
She/Her
- Assistant Professor
- State Univ Adjuct Unit
Credentials
- Doctor of Philosophy, Art History, Criticism and Conservation
University of Ulster - Master of Arts with Distinction, Irish Visual Culture
University of Ulster - Bachelor of Arts, Art History, Criticism and Conservation
University Of Minnesota Twin Cities
Recent and upcoming courses
Fall 2025
Spring 2026
Biography
Dr. Megan Arney Johnston is a curator, writer, and educator who utilizes socially engaged practices to connect with audiences. She is interested in where creativity converges with visual culture and civil engagement. Her passion is focusing on creating inclusive museum environments for audiences. She loves working to connect communities and museums.
Arney Johnston is an independent curator/producer and educator. Recent curatorial projects include solo exhibitions by Anne Labovitz at the State Capitol, the Plains Art Museum and Rochester Art Center, MN; Melissa Borman and The Gordon Parks Gallery at Metro State, St Paul; Eyenga Bokamba at Concordia University; and an archive-based exhibition at the Historic Courthouse in Stillwater, MN. She was the instigator and project team member on the Guerrilla Girls Twin Cities Take Over in 2016, a collaboration between the Weisman Art Museum, the Walker Art Centre, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis College of Art & Design, and community partners. She has curated more than 330 exhibitions, projects, parallel events, and community engagements.
For more than 25 years, Arney Johnston has worked in leading museums and galleries in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, including positions at the Model: Home of the Niland Collection, the Weisman Art Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Arney Johnston has garnered numerous awards and funding for her projects, including grants from state, national, and international funding organizations. She has written dozens of exhibition catalog essays and academic journal articles and presented on contemporary museum practice, socially engaged methods, and radical museology at numerous national and international conferences.
Originally from Stillwater, Minnesota, she has a BA in the History of Art, focusing on Contemporary art, French Realism (with Dr. Gabriel Weisberg), and a minor in Women’s Studies and Feminist Art (studying with Dr. Griselda Pollock). In 2005, Arney Johnston broke new academic ground in her work in post-conflict and art research with her MA in Irish Visual Culture at the University of Ulster in Belfast, focusing on the visual manifestations of the construction of ‘Orange’ culture. The show is now recognized as a benchmark for the utilization of art and conflict resolution.
Arney Johnston received her practice-based PhD at Ulster on socially engaged curatorial practice at the School of Art, Design & the Built Environment at the University of Ulster in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Her thesis is: ‘Curating in Contexts: Slow Curating—A Reflective Practice’. The research has developed a framework for a curatorial process called ‘slow curating’ that enables, explores and expands museum and exhibition experiences for more relevantly audience engagement. As a social practice it portends new alternatives to current museology as well as a catalyst for change in the mediation of contemporary art. Her book Slow Curating: A Handbook for Socially Engaged Curatorial Practices, will be published by Routledge, UK - Heritage and Museum Studies in 2026. For more information, please see slowcurating.com.
