Laura Albans

Originally from Bangor, Maine, Laura Albans (she/her) has been with the Baltimore Museum of Art since 2002. She began her tenure at the Museum as the curatorial assistant in the European Painting and Sculpture Department, where she worked with the late Senior Curator Sona Johnston. Laura also worked as an assistant in the Conservation Department. She has assisted both in-house and visiting curators on numerous and notable exhibitions at the BMA, including In Monet’s Light: Theodore Robinson at Giverny (2004–2005); Camille Pissarro: Creating the Impressionist Landscape (2007–2008); Cézanne and American Modernism (2009–2010); Max Weber: Bringing Paris to New York (2013), and the critically acclaimed Matisse/Diebenkorn (2016–2017). Laura has also played a key role in editing exhibition catalogues related to her department’s projects. In 2017, she became Assistant Curator of European Painting & Sculpture and delved into her first foray with contemporary art by curating Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg: Delights of an Undirected Mind in conjunction with Monsters & Myths: Surrealism and War in the 1930s and 1940s and most recently Adelyn Breeskin: Curating a Legacy. As of July 2021, Laura joined forces with Katy Rothkopf in the newly-opened Ruth R. Marder Center for Matisse Studies as the Curatorial Research Associate.

Laura studied art history and studio art at the University of Maine, Orono, where she also worked as an assistant to the museum director. Before moving to Maryland, she was the assistant at the Bangor Historical Society, where she wore many hats: working with school groups, giving house tours, acting as registrar, and working closely with objects from the Civil War, including glass plate negatives and daguerreotypes.