On his left hand, Anthony Shelton wears a large, rectangular ring featuring a checkerboard of lapis lazuli and malachite. The new director of the Museum of Anthropology at UBC bought it as a good-luck token in a Mexican market two decades ago and says he's never taken it off. Perhaps this striking piece of jewellery helped lead the British- born professor, museologist, and curator to the helm of what will soon be the largest research-oriented anthropological museum in the Americas.

"I would never have actually dreamed of becoming the director of MOA," said the 49-year-old in late August, two days before officially taking over the job from acting director Michael M. Ames. "It's probably the most innovative museum, after [Switzerland's Musée d'Ethnographie de] Neuchâtel, in the world. It has a line of illustrious directors that have been seminal in changing the face of either museological thinking or the way we look at material culture. There's a lot to live up to."

Widely known as an advocate of the democratization of museums and their potential use for social criticism, Shelton appears to be an ideal philosophical match for the institution. (Invited to apply, he made the shortlist of four candidates selected from an international roster, and was the unanimous choice for director after three days of interviews and presentations.) The MOA's worldwide reputation for undertaking joint curatorial projects with communities, such as working with First Nations on an equal basis, was one of many attractions for him--a chance to put theory into practice. "These are the kinds of things that I've been writing about for ages," he said.

Shelton also arrives in time to oversee a $58-million renewal project that will increase the Arthur Erickson--designed landmark's size and research capacity. He brings to this mammoth task a 16-year background in teaching, administration, research, and curatorial work, skills he gained while working at institutions ranging from London's University College and that city's Horniman Museum to the University of Coimbra in Portugal, where he held his most recent position.

Given his specialization in pre-Columbian and Mexican popular culture, Shelton has made plenty of trips to the Americas, but until his job interview he had never visited the Canadian Pacific Northwest. Time spent in California at the start of his career, however, imprinted his personal style, and may explain the appealingly casual first impression circulated
by the MOA: a photo of a tousle-haired Shelton sitting on a street curb. "I learned that you can be positive, optimistic, and quite laid-back," he recalled about his early West Coast experience, "but in fact you can run a very tight ship as well."

Winning the MOA directorship overturned what Shelton had thought was a settled life in Portugal for himself, his wife, Nicky, and their young son, Marcel. Added to this was Nicky's unexpected and difficult recent pregnancy, which has since added healthy twin boys, Lucien and Felix, to the family. They will join Shelton in Vancouver in time for New Year's.

A self-described "passionate European", Shelton didn't downplay the upheaval of transplanting himself and his family from a medieval Portuguese city to the British Columbia rain forest. "Three weeks ago I was in an office in a 17th-century monastery," he mused. "Twenty-first--century Vancouver isn't exactly a culture shock, because I travel all the time, but when you know that this is a permanent reality, it shakes you a little bit."

To acculturate himself, Shelton begins each working day by wandering in awe among the huge Northwest Coast totems in the museum's Great Hall. He looks forward to getting down to business with a staff he called the most enthusiastic and dedicated he's ever met.