Shelley R. Langdale has been curator and head of modern and contemporary prints and drawings at the National Gallery of Art since 2019. During her time at the museum, she has curated Anxious Eye: German Expressionism and its Legacy (2024) and Dear America: Artists Explore the American Experience (2026). Prior to her current role, Langdale held curatorial positions in works on paper collections at the Harvard University Art Museums, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  

Over the course of her career, Langdale has curated numerous exhibitions and published on topics ranging from the 15th-century engravings of Antonio Pollaiuolo to the video installations and works on paper of contemporary artists Oscar Muñoz and Tabaimo. Langdale was also part of the curatorial team for the international contemporary art festival Philagrafika held throughout Philadelphia in 2010. 

Langdale served as the president of the Print Council of America from 2017 to 2021 and as a panelist (2017–2018) and chair (2018–2023) for the National Endowment of the Arts Domestic Indemnity Advisory Panel. She is a member of the boards of The Print Center and the Brandywine Workshop and Archives in Philadelphia as well as the acquisition and advisory committees of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art in Maine.