UMFA Announces New Modern and Contemporary Curator
The Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA) at the University of Utah is delighted to announce that Emily Lawhead has joined the UMFA staff as associate curator of modern and contemporary art.
Lawhead brings to the UMFA an impressive depth of knowledge about global modern and contemporary art and valuable experience in scholarly and museum publishing. She has an MA in museum studies from the University of San Francisco and a PhD in contemporary art history and new media from the University of Oregon. Before joining the UMFA staff she was curatorial assistant for the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art’s Shared Visions program, a rotating public display of modern and contemporary masterworks from private collections. She also serves as editorial manager for the International Journal for Digital Art History.
“Dr. Lawhead brings to the UMFA extraordinary awareness and knowledge of social justice issues and experimental ideas and media in terms of both contemporary art and museum practices,” said UMFA senior curator Alisa McCusker. “We are delighted to work with her to develop ongoing and future initiatives that support our endeavor to become an antiracist institution that advances decolonization among museums.”
A specialist in new media art, Lawhead is interested in intersections of art and technology with an emphasis on modern and contemporary Japan. As UMFA associate curator of modern and contemporary art, Lawhead will become part of a significant and committed effort, guided by the UMFA’s mission, core values, and strategic goals, to rethink and re-envision curatorial practice through a lens of anti-racism, diversity, inclusion, and equity. She will build on important work already begun to increase the diversity of artists in the collection, to broaden current thinking about art and museums, to dismantle outmoded ways of working, and to forge a truly community-engaged curatorial practice appropriate for a high-functioning regional art museum.
“I am thrilled and honored to be joining both the UMFA staff and the vibrant arts community in Salt Lake City,” Lawhead said. “I share the UMFA’s mission to embrace art’s power to promote justice and create meaningful connections in our lives, and I am passionate about developing twenty-first century curatorial practices that encourage anti-racist, diverse, inclusive, and equitable experiences with modern and contemporary art.”
The UMFA is well-known for its comprehensive permanent collection of more than 20,000 objects—a collection of greater depth and breadth than any other in the Intermountain West—and for its significant and growing collection of twentieth- and twenty-first century art. The Museum’s mission, however, is focused on people—on serving and strengthening local community, effecting positive change, and helping create a more just society. The UMFA places creativity and lifelong learning at the center of its work—striving to create an inclusive, visitor-centered environment, in which everyone, regardless of museum experience and art knowledge, feels welcome, inspired, respected, and encouraged to think creatively and critically.