Nicole Maria Evans is Interim Executive Director/Chief Curator & Director of Curatorial Affairs at Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art (The Square) in Great Falls, Montana. Evans is an art historian, curator, writer, researcher, and educator. She oversees the programming initiatives for exhibitions and collections at the museum. Evans has led the curatorial direction and collections care efforts for the museum since 2019. She secured the needed Collections Assessment for Preservation (CAP) national award for the museum in 2022. Evans established the museum’s outstanding publications and out of state traveling exhibition portfolio. Her work is rooted in collaboration, understanding, and communication. WITHIN: Louis Still Smoking and John Isaiah Pepion, a site-specific installation curated by Indigenous artists from the Blackfeet Nation is Evans’ most recent collaborative exhibition with catalogue publication. Evans publications initiative for The Square began with her exhibition project OBJECT#: A Permanent Collection Exhibition about Museums and The Practice of Collecting Art; and Beyond Intention: A Contemporary Fiber and Mixed-Media Arts Exhibition, featuring the work of Jennifer Reifsneider, Ashley V. Blalock, and Maggy Rozycki Hiltner. Likewise, influential exhibitions have included Il Maestro! A Centennial Celebration, Works by Morton Levin; Peter Koch: The Book as a Work of Art; and Dr. Charles Smith: Black History Lessons; and VESSEL: Formative Works by Peter Voulkos.

Evans holds a Master of Arts in Art History and Museum Studies from Tufts University with research in Havana, Cuba; and her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art History from University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) with French and Art History studies at the Université de Bordeaux, France. Evans holds a seat on the Board of Trustees of the Montana Art Gallery Directors Association (MAGDA). As a curator and art historian she has succeeded in the curatorial and museum field for over twenty years. She has served in curatorial, fellowship, research, collections, and educational roles at museums and universities across the United States including the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Tufts University, deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, The Smithsonian Institution (Latino Museum Studies Program/National Museum of the American Latino, National Museum of the American Indian, and SITES Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Services), Corcoran Gallery of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art and UCLA Hammer Museum.