A set of curators born in the digital age, now in their 30s and early 40s, is making strides at major American museums, bringing new and exciting ideas to their sometimes staid institutions.

Harvard-educated Jen Mergel, for example, is the newly-appointed senior curator for contemporary art the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and at the center of the creation of a whole new wing for the museum. One quarter of the museum campus will be dedicated to contemporary art by June 2011.

“This is a big, big step for Boston,” she said in an interview with the New York Times.