Emily McAvoy-Foley is our Print Room and Collections Specialist. She has been with Newfields for over five years.

What do you do here at Newfields?

My title is the Print Room and Collections Specialist, and I work within the Collections Support department under our Collections Manager, Grant Keeney. Most of my time is spent overseeing the Works on Paper collection which is comprised of prints, drawings, and photographs. My work involves handling the organization of the art and how it’s stored, creating new locations for acquisitions, solving mysteries regarding unknown/unnumbered works, and handling the overall upkeep of the storage space.

When I’m not thinking about where I’m going to put things, I’m usually framing any works on paper that are slated for display. Framing can feel highly collaborative, which I enjoy - the designers, curators, conservators, and I work together to decide the safest, most aesthetically pleasing method for display. I then handle the matting, hinging, and framing of each work via the decisions we’ve made.

What education, work, or experience supports your role here?

First and foremost, I’m a “works on paper” artist, meaning I work within most disciplines on paper. I believe my craft serves me more than my degrees. I enrolled at Herron School of Art + Design with the intention of studying Drawing and Illustration, but I graduated with a Printmaking degree. I then received my MA in Museum Studies, where I focused on art collections-based work through a fellowship that was awarded to me at IU Indianapolis.

Postgrad, I’ve been exploring watercolor and photography. The knowledge of how works are created, through my academic and personal experiences, serves me daily in how I handle art and store it. During my time at Herron, I was able to take a tour of the IMA at Newfields’ Print Suite, which is what inspired me to pursue museum work, so I’m having a very full circle career moment right now.

I also have to shout-out Kelly Griffith-Daniel; without her mentorship I wouldn’t be where I am. Over a two-year span, she taught me everything I know today about framing.

Are you working on something exciting right now?

I’m always working on many exciting collections-based projects at Newfields! Most notably, I’ve been working with Registration and Curatorial to solve a numbering issue within our Antreasian collection that has spanned multiple decades at this point. I'm also enjoying a brief moment of quiet after Giants and wrapping my mind around a few upcoming exhibitions and rotations.

In my personal life, I’ve been exploring the concepts of migration and “home” lately in my own work. Migratory birds and aquatic life have been at the forefront of my mind, which probably stems from the books I’m reading to my toddler each night, and the fact that we recently bought our first home. I’m preparing to start a large watercolor of a photograph I took in West Kilbride, Scotland, of swans on a craggy shore.