Though his retirement is approaching, Brian Byrn is an art museum curator who will never retire from his personal love for art.

By Jan Wiezorek

He charms like a down-home caretaker or loving grandfather—mustache and all. He has the lilt of a storyteller and an artist’s creative vision. When Brian Byrn, 67, retires on December 31 after 44 years as curator and the last ten as director at the Midwest Museum of American Art (MMAA) in Elkhart, Indiana, he’ll be missed as much for his style as for his many accomplishments.

Bending close to the artwork, he points out its special qualities—almost as if he were sharing a secret with you. Such is his great love for the museum’s art and its visitors. Byrn says it’s important to have a narrative and delivery that people understand. “I want to break down barriers immediately and put a human face on this relationship. I want it to be a lively kind of civic dialogue that adds to your tool chest of art.”

Enhancing the museum’s permanent collection from 224 works in 1981 to 6,800 today is clearly a proud accomplishment for Byrn. In 2024 alone, more than 200 art objects were added to the collection. Recently, the R. Douglas Grant family donated Firelight, a painting by Indiana artist and ceramist Margaret Overbeck and featured in the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exhibition in St. Louis, Missouri. Byrn adds that Overbeck’s painting shows that she is an important Indiana artist. “She was listed among all the illustrious male artists of Indiana—T. C. Steele, John Ottis Adams, and William Forsyth—to name just a few. So, this is a pretty significant painting.”

As curator, Byrn says, “We consider the provenance and the expectations of the donor. We take works unrestricted—with no strings attached. I assess the historical value, the nature of the work, condition, and the legal assignment. I ask questions about it. There’s a lot more that goes into it. I make sense of all the objects here and how they interconnect.

One successful art exhibition that Byrn brought to Elkhart featured photographs by Linda McCartney in 2000. Titled Roadworks: The Photographs of Linda McCartney, the large-scale images featured rock and roll musicians. Another popular exhibition included a collection of art and cultural material about western stars Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. It was featured at the museum in the late 1990s.

In 2024, MMAA, with total revenue of $402,000, hosted 5,500 visitors to its 20,000 square feet of gallery space. The museum is housed in a former bank building at 429 S. Main St. in Elkhart. Among many other artists, the museum features works by Alexander Calder and Roger Brown, lithographs by Norman Rockwell, Sheaves of Corn by Grant Wood, original works by Andy Warhol, and paintings by such local artists as Mary Frances Overbeck and Lea Goldman.

Byrn himself became known locally when, as an artist, he won Best of Show at the Third Elkhart Juried Regional Exhibition in 1981 for his artwork titled Madonna and Child Enthroned in Indiana. Byrn remembers joining the museum that same year while his artwork was "still hanging front and center in the main gallery.”

This year, the 47th Elkhart Juried Regional show will be on display Oct. 4 through Dec. 21. In 2024, $22,000 in prize money was awarded to winning artists, with 262 artists submitting 457 artworks for consideration by the jurors.

Byrn with Robert Brown’s *Trees of Heaven*

Byrn focuses more on the job of curating and directing MMAA than on his own personal art. “You know, I’ve never tried to use this platform to promote myself as an artist, so I think building relationships with artists and collectors has always been a big part of my life,” he says.

But earlier in his career, Byrn had six solo exhibitions of his own works, including shows at the John G. Blank Center for Art (now the Lubeznik Center for the Arts, Michigan City, Indiana).

While teaching such courses as drawing, painting, and 20th century art history as an adjunct professor at Goshen College, he mentored a student who helped Byrn install at Southwestern Michigan College in the mid-1990s a solo show of mixed-media works of people and animals. “A student, Doug Whitmer, assisted me. He’s a very successful Philadelphia-based artist today,” he adds.

One way that Byrn has affected the regional and local arts community involves his substantive work as juror for more than 50 fine art competitions. These have included judging for ARC Gallery in Chicago, Northern Indiana Artists, St. Joseph Valley Watercolor Society, Northern Indiana Pastel Society, and Box Factory for the Arts, among many other groups. He has presented numerous art talks about the MMAA collection and often is available to walk the galleries with students and visitors, sharing with them his great love for art.

Byrn holds a Master of Science in Education with an emphasis in Art from Indiana University at South Bend, and a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts from Indiana University Southeast at New Albany.

He says he has largely “mothballed” his career as a working artist, but Byrn still draws and creates artwork for his personal interest. For the past 20 years, he and wife Lisa have visited Isla Mujeres, Mexico, an island off the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula. While Lisa reads, he creates figurative-based mixed media drawings. He expects to create more art in retirement. He may develop an arts-related podcast as commentary on the art world as “an intersection of art and living a creative life.”

Whatever Byrn does, you can be certain it will spark interest.

Learn more about the MMAA

Brian Byrn's Legendary Life in Art