MUSEUM SHOPS
‘True Excitement’ New Retail VP Embraces Museum Experience Hearing Teresa Curl recount her career experiences, it seems
the business with a summer job at New Mexico-based Avila
the new vice president of Retail for the Museum of New
Retail, which operates airport specialty stores in Albu-
Mexico Foundation’s Museum Shops was tailor-made for
querque, Denver, Phoenix and San Francisco. She eventu-
the job.
ally rose to become the company’s CEO.
“My whole life has been in retail,” admits Curl, who started
Curl says she logged valuable experience working with
her new role in January. Despite her vast experience working
regional and Indigenous artists at Avila’s 25 stores. In 2018,
with New Mexican and Native American artists, and curating
after Avila was sold, she says, “I wanted to be working with
retail stores throughout the Southwest, Curl maintains she
local artists, folk art, Native American artists and regional
has a lot to learn. She says she feels “true excitement” when
goods. This is the job for me.”
driving to work at museums she visited as a child growing up in Albuquerque.
Curl says her favorite part of working for the Museum Shops is buying from artists. She’s impressed by the seamless rela-
Curl recently spent a year at Los Poblanos Historic Inn and
tionship between the shops at the New Mexico History
Organic Farm, in Albuquerque’s North Valley, as director of
Museum, Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, New Mexico
retail brand strategy. Beginning at age 19, she came up in
Museum of Art and Museum of International Folk Art. Their partnership with the Foundation, she says, “really gives us economy of scale when we’re trying to buy for multiple stores. It also provides flexibility in staffing. It provides a lot of benefits to be associated. It allows us to run it more affordably.” What’s next for the Museum Shops? Curl is jazzed about curating items for the future opening of the Vladem Contemporary shop. “It’s really exciting to think of how that store can have its own character, and at the same time, be the sister store to the art museum downtown,” she says. The focus will be on contemporary items in all price ranges, including high-end art and functional design items and jewelry. She’s got more on her plate, of course, from designing a 2023 budget to streamlining the inventory control system. “I don’t know that that’s incredibly fascinating,” she laughs, “but it is to me, because I’m a retail nerd.”
Teresa Curl, Museum Shops vice president of retail. Photo by Saro Calewarts.
museumfoundation.org
For more information about the Museum Shops, contact Teresa Curl at 505.216.0725 or Teresa@museumfoundation.org. 19
