And yet he is far from the first SAM curator to show up at galleries, lectures, studios, art cooperatives and other museums. He hobnobs and extends himself. So did they. He has vision and authority.

She and the artist wanted visitors to “feel a connection to a place.” Sam Falls, Untitled (San Bernardino National Forest, CA.) (2017–19). Photo courtesy of the artist and 303 Gallery, New York.

Sam Charney founded his eponymous real estate company in 2013, but found art much earlier—in high school, to be exact. He was an errand boy for a Soho gallery where, between painting walls and ...

SAM’s historical American art collection contains approximately 2,500 examples of painting, sculpture, works on paper and decorative arts.