She received a BA in Art History from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts in 1981, and an MFA in Painting from Indiana University, Bloomington, in 1988. She joined the University of Arkansas faculty in 1991.

Kristin Musgnug explores the domesticated American landscape in paintings that re-examine the Romantic tradition of landscape painting. Born in Buffalo, New York, Kristin Musgnug received a BA in Art History from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts in 1981, and an MFA in painting from Indiana University, Bloomington, in 1988. Following graduate school, she joined the Core Residency Program at the Houston Museum of Art's Glassell School. Since 1991 she has been on the faculty of the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. During 1994-95 she was Artist in Residence at Lucy Cavendish College of Cambridge University, England. She has made painting trips to England, Macedonia, Nova Scotia and numerous parts of the United States, including residencies at the Norton Island Artists Colony, the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences, the Ragdale Foundation, and the Dorland Mountain Colony. In 2002 she received an Arkansas Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship in Painting. Recent exhibitions include solo shows at Kansas State University, Inman Gallery in Houston and the Galveston Arts Center. Her work is in the collection of the Houston Museum of Fine Arts and was included in the book, Texas: 150 works from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Kristin Musgnug's work is represented by Inman Gallery in Houston, Texas.

Two of Musgnug's works, "Picnic Island" (2000) and "Maine Seascape" (1997), are on exhibit in the Fine Arts Library through the Spring 2008 semester.