News Release: Laura F. Fry joins Eiteljorg Museum as new VP for Curatorial Affairs and Collections
Curator brings long experience in museums presenting Indigenous and Western American art
Laura F. Fry, Eiteljorg Museum vice president for curatorial affairs and collections
Image courtesy of Laura Fry
Monday, Dec. 9, 2024
INDIANAPOLIS – The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art is pleased to announce that Laura F. Fry has joined the museum as its new vice president for curatorial affairs and collections.
Fry is a museum innovator with more than 15 years of experience in the museum field, reimagining exhibitions of American and Indigenous art, forging new interpretation strategies, guiding capital improvement projects and cultivating museum partnerships.
Fry’s most recent role was as senior curator and curator of art at Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for 8½ years. A peer institution to the Eiteljorg, Gilcrease contains one of the nation’s most significant collections of the art and history of North America, including prominent holdings of Native art and Western American art. During her tenure in Tulsa, Fry led the interpretive planning process and shaped the future exhibition design for the ongoing reconstruction of the new 92,000-square-foot Gilcrease building. Fry also helped to launch an extensive new process at Gilcrease for consulting with Native nations regarding Native artworks and museum exhibitions.
“Laura Fry brings a wide range of curatorial leadership experience, including recontextualizing museum collections of Western American art, Indigenous art and culture and American history,” Eiteljorg Museum President Kathryn Haigh said. “Laura is a collaborative leader who has worked with the diverse communities and cultures represented in the Eiteljorg’s collections. Her extensive experience adds depth to the exceptional Eiteljorg team, and we look forward to her work with artists, collectors, visitors, Board members and the community.”
At the Eiteljorg, Fry will lead teams who organize, curate and design the museum’s exhibitions, and catalog and protect the museum’s collections of more than 10,000 artworks and cultural belongings.
“It’s an honor to join the Eiteljorg team, and I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to work with the artists and artworks represented in this incredible collection,” Fry said. “I look forward to building on the excellent work taking place at the Eiteljorg to make new community connections and bring new perspectives to Indigenous art and imagery of the American West.”
Originally from Cincinnati, Fry earned her BFA in ceramics from Washington University in St. Louis, and MA in art history from the University of Denver. Earlier in her museum career, Fry served at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming, where she helped develop the online Frederic Remington Catalogue Raisonné, a database of more than 3,000 works by the influential Western artist. Later Fry served as the Haub curator of Western American art at the Tacoma Art Museum in Washington state, where she oversaw the acquisition, inaugural exhibition and publication of a major donation of 300 artworks. Throughout her career, Fry’s publications and exhibition projects have included early American history, 19th-century artists of the West, modern and contemporary Indigenous artists, and American decorative arts and design. Most recently, Fry served on the curatorial advisory committee for the exhibition Knowing the West at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, currently on view through January 27, 2025.
Fry also brings deep family connections to the arts in this region. She was named for her great-great aunt, Laura Anne Fry (1857-1943), an influential American artist who specialized in ceramics and wood carving. One of the first employees of the Rookwood Pottery Company in Cincinnati in the 1880s, Laura Anne Fry invented and patented a new spray technique of applying glaze pigments to pottery. Later, she settled in Indiana and led the Art Department at Purdue University for nearly three decades until her retirement in 1922. Her art career was the subject of Laura F. Fry’s master’s thesis.
Having recently relocated from Tulsa, Laura F. Fry resides in Indianapolis with her husband Jason B. Jones, their young son and two elderly cats. They are a “museum family”; Jason works remotely as the executive director of the Western Museums Association, and they are excited to explore Indiana’s arts community. Fry began her new duties at the Eiteljorg on Dec. 9.
Fry succeeds Elisa G. Phelps, former vice president for curatorial affairs and collections for five years, who now is head of curatorial affairs at the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, front exterior
File image
About the Eiteljorg
For 35 years, the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art has been an integral part of the cultural fabric of Indianapolis and scenic White River State Park. The Eiteljorg Museum explores the intersection of the arts, histories and cultures of the past and present by sharing the diverse stories of the American West and the Indigenous Peoples of North America. Located on the Central Canal at 500 West Washington St., the Eiteljorg is a 501c3 nonprofit organization.
Media Contacts
Bryan Corbin
Public Relations Manager
317.275.1315
bcorbin@eiteljorg.com
Katie Warthan
Director of Communications and Marketing
317.275.1317
kwarthan@eitejorg.com
