In December, the Mobile Museum of Art announced that, after a national search, Jon Carfagno, the current executive director of the Hickory Museum of Art in North Carolina, would become the newest director of the museum. Carfagno has also worked at museums in Grand Rapids, Mich., and Houston, Texas.

Carfagno takes the reins on Feb. 14th, but before his arrival in Mobile, we discussed why he decided to work in museums, how he came to the Mobile Museum of Art and the future of the museum.

Questions and answers have been condensed and edited for clarity.

Tell me a little bit about yourself, what you what you do, and how you how you came to the Mobile Museum of Art.

I have been a museum worker pretty much for my entire adult life. From the time I saw a painting in high school, I knew that I wanted to be surrounded by art. And I guess my guiding principle, from the moment I first discovered that I was curious about art, was that if a dumb hockey and baseball player could be excited, interested and have his life transformed by art, anybody could. And that has been my mission ever since then.