After an extensive one-year search, the Dayton Art Institute has chosen a new curator.

Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, curator at the Fleming Museum of Art at the University of Vermont in Burlington, will become Curator of Collections and Exhibitions at the DAI, and will take on the new position at the end of October.

She replaces DAI chief curator Will South, who resigned in September 2011 to become chief curator at the Columbia Museum of Art in South Carolina. The DAI has been without a curatorial staff since that time.

DeGalan, a Michigan native who holds a Ph.D in Art History from Case Western Reserve, also has served as assistant curator of European Paintings at the Detroit Institute of Arts and has held a three-year fellowship at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

In a phone interview, the 42-year-old DeGalan said she has missed being in the Midwest and was attracted to the Dayton job because of the DAI’s “world class collection and innovative education department.”

“It was one of the first museums in the country to have an Experiencenter where adults and children can interact,” she said.

Dayton Art Institute Executive Director Michael Roediger said the museum was looking for someone who had solid curatorial experience but who also understood the changing role of the curator.

“Traditionally it was a more limited role. A curator was a behind-the-scenes scholar and keeper of the collection,” DeGalan explained. “You researched acquisitions, brought in exhibitions.”

These days, in addition to those things, she said a curator is being asked to step outside that traditional role and do outreach in the community, working with the museum’s development team to make new connections.

Those additional duties, DeGalan said, appeal to her.

Jane Black, the DAI’s associate director, said the museum received about 20 applications for the position and initially narrowed the search down to five applicants. The top two were brought to town for public lectures and meetings with the staff and board.

“Amy is young and energetic, and well-versed in a wide range of art, ” Black said. “We wanted someone who would listen to people and their interests, find out what they would come to see at the museum, and put things together in new and different ways.”

Black described DeGalan as “very thoughtful and well-spoken.” Her top priority, she said, will be to familiarize herself with the DAI’s collection and work on exhibits for next summer.

DeGalan, who had a baby two weeks ago, also has a three-year-old daughter. The family will live in Kettering.