Meet Mia: Q&A with Skylar Bull Lyon, Security Guard, Lieutenant

Meet Mia is a bimonthly series highlighting museum staff—the talented humans who help make Mia a community treasure. Watch for new Q&As in People & Culture.

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By Tara Kaushik

July 6, 2026—Contrary to the rather serious-sounding title (Security Guard, Lieutenant), Skylar Bull Lyon actually spends quite a lot of his time at Mia helping visitors find their way around the museum.

Yes, security staff protect the priceless artworks in our galleries and help maintain a safe environment. But they’re also around to answer questions, give directions, and even just chat and say hello. As Bull Lyon describes it, the job title is Security Guard, but he’s a bit of a Secret Guide, too.

Speed Run

• Role: Security Guard, Lieutenant
• How long you’ve worked at Mia: 2.5 years
• Favorite artwork in the collection: Francis Bacon’s Study for Portrait VI (1953)
• Go-to Eat Street lunch order: Eggs Benedict from the Copper Hen

What are your first memories of art?

My parents had this book—it was called Great American Artworks, or something like that. And I remember seeing Warhol’s soup cans in it. I was so curious about how he had made it—like, did he draw the same can over and over? How could they be such exact replicas of each other? I was just mesmerized by it.

I was always really interested in art. When I was in high school, I took a pre-college art course at the University of Madison–Wisconsin. They taught a particular kind of screenprinting, which involved screenprinting on glass, which is a pretty niche technique. I really enjoyed that. And then I went to MCAD [Minneapolis College of Art and Design] to study printmaking. And I got this opportunity while I was there to go work in an art gallery in a tiny town in Bavaria, in Germany, which was incredible.

Then I arrived back here and was like, oh, I really need money, and that’s how I ended up working here. I’ve always really liked Mia. I love that it’s a free museum, and it has such an incredible collection. I can’t really think of any other free museum with this kind of collection.

What does a typical day look like for you?

Most days, I’ll be stationed up in the galleries, roaming. It’s a lot of quiet time, which I don’t necessarily mind. Though occasionally it does start to get to you. There was one day, early on, where there was no one around in the galleries and I started counting the herringbone floor tiles. I get a lot of steps in—I think I’ve gotten close to 40,000 in a day.

But I’m generally just keeping an eye on things, answering questions, and helping visitors. Reminding people not to bring coffee into the galleries or to take a few steps back from the art. They might not be touching it, but they do sometimes get really close.

Have you picked up any surprising skills or talents in your role?

Staying calm in an emergency. I’ve learned to be the calmest person in a high-pressure scenario. Everyone could be panicking, but if you stay steady, they can rely on you.

I think I also picked up that skill working in restaurants. Restaurant people tend to be intense, and it’s often a stressful environment, and you just have to be the one person to say: “Sure. OK. What do you need to get that done?”

Tell me a story about working at Mia as a security guard.

One of my first days here, someone came up to me and asked me for directions to a certain gallery, so I helped them find their way, and they had a lot of questions about the collection and whether certain things were real or not, so I just tried my best to help them and went back to where I was stationed. And then, like, five minutes later, we get a call saying that someone just licked the Doryphoros. And it was, in fact, the same visitor.

What would you be if you weren’t working as a security guard at Mia?

I might be working in a library. I used to work at Midway Contemporary Art, and they have a really excellent library. It was kind of similar to this job—quiet, which I liked. And I got to catalogue a lot of interesting books. I’d enjoy that.

What makes Francis Bacon’s Study for Portrait VI your favorite piece in the collection?

I have a soft spot for Francis Bacon. He was such a master at using paint. And he used it in such a way that I don’t think even great painters can. And he does it so flawlessly.

What other works do you like?

I specialized in photographic printmaking in school, so I always get a kick out of those kinds of works. There’s an old daguerreotype on view up in the Perlman Gallery right now, but you don’t see those very often. I wanted to try making daguerreotypes in school, but they were like, “Yeah, no, you can’t bring those materials in here.”

[Editor’s note: Daguerreotypes, an early type of photograph first discovered and patented in France in 1839 by Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, involve the use of potentially hazardous chemicals like mercury and iodine.]

What do you get up to outside of work?

I’m one of the stewards for SEIU [Service Employees International Union]. I stay active, I like going for a walk or working out at the gym. I watch a lot of movies.

I’m also interested in photography—I really like old instant cameras. I have a Polaroid from the ’90s, and I was recently given a Polaroid that’s from the ’60s, so I enjoy experimenting with those. I also like to write about art, usually contemporary art.

What are you singing at karaoke night? 

“Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” by Cindy Lauper. What’s nice about it is that absolutely no one can sing that song well, including Cindy Lauper. But everybody knows it, so everyone’s going to join in.