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DAYTON — They are big shoes to fill, but the members of the Dayton Art Institute search committee are convinced David Brigham will fill them nicely.

Brigham, most recently executive director of the Allentown Art Museum in Pennsylvania, will become director and CEO of the Dayton Art Institute, replacing Alex Nyerges, who resigned last August to head the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

Nyerges, it turns out, inadvertently may have served as an unofficial recruiter.

"Alex was on the accreditation visiting team that visited the Worcester Art Museum, I got to know him, and was impressed by the kinds of exhibitions that Dayton does and by the responsiveness of the community," said Brigham.

He takes over his new duties Aug. 20.

Before going to Allentown, Brigham previously served first as curator of American Art and then as director of collections and exhibitions in Worcester, Mass. He and his wife, painter Holly Trostle Brigham, have two young children.

"Can we stay in Dayton forever?" four-year-old Noble Brigham recently asked his dad after learning his family would be moving from Allentown, Pa., to Ohio later this summer.

It's just one of the challenging questions Brigham has faced in recent months on the road to his new job.

Joseph A. Zehenny, chairman of the DAI board and search committee, describes his committee's leading candidate as "intelligent," "knowledgeable about art" and "able to work with a wide variety of people,"

"He has high energy, a good business sense, good insights about the future and is a collaborator," said Zehenny.

Brigham, 43, has accomplishments ranging from book publishing and organizing special exhibitions to building audience and membership, fund-raising and overseeing renovation and expansion.

"Dayton found me," said Brigham, who has turned down other recruiters and said he wasn't looking to move but was tempted by the DAI's prestige and reputation. He said both he and his wife were "very impressed" with the museum and the community after visiting.

Brigham views art as something that is transformative.

"It transports us across time and space," he said. "I see it as something that opens our minds and our hearts, and enables us to see the world through other people's eyes."

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2440 or mmoss@DaytonDailyNews.com.