After nearly two decades supporting student learning and collections stewardship at the University of New Mexico, including 10 years at the UNM Art Museum (UNMAM), Heather Kline will retire this spring. For the last four years, she has served as Assistant to the Director Arif Khan, following six years as a collections associate.

Kline leaves UNMAM after helping students engage with works of art, supporting the museum’s teaching mission and leading a major digitization initiative. Initially, she had planned to retire in 2021 but remained to support UNMAM’s Beaumont Newhall Study Room during a staff transition, and later, to assist Khan.

“The museum’s mission is so important, and it’s such a unique resource within the university,” Kline said. “I love being associated with it, and it hasn’t been hard at all to stay on.” 

Kline began working at UNMAM in 2016, just months before Khan started as director, placing her in an ideal position to support the museum’s development under Khan. “I appreciate Heather’s patience dealing with a first-time director who didn’t know what he was doing,” joked Khan.

Originally from the Upper Midwest, Kline moved to New Mexico in 2007 after earning her undergraduate degree at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. After working at a Santa Fe gallery, she entered UNM’s Master of Arts program in art history, focusing on the art of the Americas and New Mexico rock art, and served as a research assistant at the College of Fine Arts Bunting Visual Resources Library. 

Shaping Student Learning 

When the library closed, Kline joined UNMAM as a collections associate, managing the Beaumont Newhall Study Room and coordinating class visits. “I loved it. Interacting with students was the best part of the job. For many of them, it was their first experience being around works of art,” she said. 

During the COVID‑19 pandemic, Kline helped reimagine the Clinton Adams Gallery as an interactive study space so classes could continue visiting UNMAM. “It was very valuable. Otherwise, it would have been a real loss to students. Without it, we wouldn’t have been able to have any students in at all,” she said. 

To reinforce UNMAM’s teaching role, she installed works from the collection to support UNM art and art history classes. Khan credits her efforts with keeping students engaged and also with inspiring him to rethink how study room activities could extend into the galleries, a model that UNMAM continues to use. 

Creating a Digital Foundation 

In her collections associate role, Kline also led a large digitization project, supervising student photographers who created hundreds of images from the museum’s collection. Their work laid the foundation for TMS Collections, a new searchable database system being onboarded at UNMAM. 

“It’s so exciting. We’ve wanted a publicly facing image database for a long time, but it’s a lot of work. I’m indebted to all those students who helped,” she said, noting that the project provided students with valuable professional experience. 

Khan has entrusted Kline with nearly all aspects of his work in her assistant role. “Heather has always had the best interests of the museum at heart,” he said. “I trust her completely.” 

Looking Ahead in Retirement

Outside the museum, Kline has continued documenting rock art sites across New Mexico, working with agencies including the Bureau of Land Management. In retirement, she plans to continue her research, spend time at her off‑grid property, travel and volunteer. 

“I’m so grateful to have had the museum in my life and that I will continue to have it in my life. I plan to keep coming to the shows and coming to visit,” she said. “It’s been such a wonderful experience for me, and all the people I’ve known there have been wonderful and inspiring people.” 

Khan says that Kline will always be a part of the UNMAM team. “It’s been a pleasure to work with Heather for almost 10 years. Museum work is teamwork. We talk and see each other more than we do our families, in many cases,” he said. “She’ll be deeply missed. On both professional and personal levels, I greatly appreciate all she’s done.”