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‘Haters will say this urn is mid’: US National Gallery of Art curator is Insta hit with Gen Z

Deputy head of sculpture's slang-heavy posts appeal to a new generation of art lovers

The Art Newspaper
3 March 2026
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Alison Luchs’s Instagram posts in slang have been a huge hit National Gallery of Art/@ngadc

Alison Luchs’s Instagram posts in slang have been a huge hit National Gallery of Art/@ngadc

Alison Luchs, the deputy head of sculpture at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, is getting down with the kids in a big way.

Luchs was asked by the gallery’s social media manager, Sydni Myers, to appear in a series videos aimed at reaching out to a younger Gen Z audience. The posts have since gone viral, clocking up almost nine million hits so far.

“Chat, I’m about to buss it down Roman Empire style,” says Luchs, aged 77, in a recent Insta reel focused on a 16th-century urn. “Haters will say this urn is mid [mediocre], but they don’t know we’ve clocked its tea [uncovered something new].”

In a video focused on a 16th-century tin-glazed plate created by the Italian ceramicist Orazio Pompei, Luchs says: “Look how bro glazed it. He went goblin mode with all these colours [he was self-indulgent].” Alison, your take on art history treasures is straight bussin’.

DiaryNational Gallery of Art, Washington DCInstagram
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