Jay Lewis is our in-house Preparator/Carpenter here at Newfields with our Collection Support Department. He has been with Newfields for four years.

What do you do here at Newfields?

My actual title is Preparator/Carpenter. I work in the Collection Support department planning, building, installing, de-installing, and maintaining the galleries. My part of the process is helping to design and then make gallery furniture, casework, pedestals, and platforms. Occasionally, I’ll also work with the conservation team if they need any wood pieces made for projects they’re working on. The Preparator side of the job involves mostly art handling. We install and de-install all the art, help with any internal movement of the art, and also art shipments coming in and going out.

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

I’ve been interested in woodworking my whole life. I would hang out in my grandpa’s shop all day and “help” out as a kid. I went on to study sculpture at Ball State University. Turns out it’s very hard to find a full-time sculpting job, so I worked in construction for a long time doing all kinds of different woodworking jobs and managing job sites. During all those years I was also building custom electric guitars in my spare time and that eventually became my full-time job for about four years (and still kind of is) before I started working here.

Are you working on something exciting right now?

We’re currently in the middle of a very busy season getting ready for a number of upcoming shows and installations, all of which are neat, but I can’t share yet! I’m excited to see how the fourth floor evolves after THE LUME, which will be really cool.

What other interests do you have outside of work?

When I’m not making sawdust at Newfields, I’m usually making much more at my house. I have a small custom guitar business, JML Guitars, that takes up a lot of my time. And I also make little wooden marquetry animal art out of the cutoffs from the guitar business (Cutoff Critters). There was one in the most recent Artists Among Us hallway and I think I’ll have another little wooden animal artwork in the next staff show. Beyond that, I spend most of my time just being a husband and dad, and I also love riding bikes, making art, and playing music whenever I get a spare moment.