Gilcrease Museum is pleased to announce that Laura F. Fry has been hired as curator of art for Gilcrease Museum.
Fry comes to Gilcrease Museum from the Tacoma Art Museum in Tacoma, Wash., where she has been the inaugural Haub Curator of Western American Art since April 2013. Fry worked closely with collectors Erivan and Helga Haub to finalize their donation of 295 western American works of art to TAM. She curated and designed the inaugural exhibition of the Haub collection in a new gallery space — a 16,000-square-foot expansion, supported by an Art Works grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Fry also produced a 312-page collection catalogue published by Yale University Press to introduce the Haub collection to the public and organized the first TAM Symposium for Western American Art in April 2015.
Prior to her position at TAM, Fry spent four years working with the collections of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming: first as an education and curatorial assistant, then as a Frederic Remington research assistant. She assisted Peter H. Hassrick in producing the second edition of the Frederic Remington Catalogue Raisonné, a combined print publication and online database. Fry worked with the Center’s IT department to create a relational database with more than 3,000 Remington artwork records designed for a broad online audience.
“Laura brings a unique skill set to Gilcrease during a transitional period in our museum’s history. Her specialty in American art and work with the Haub collection has positioned her to work with the world’s finest collection of Western American art here at Gilcrease and provide a fresh interpretation for a new generation of museum-goers. As we move forward with our digital curation effort, her experience at the Buffalo Bill Center will add knowledge to our digitization team,” said James Pepper Henry, executive director of Gilcrease Museum.
“I am honored by the opportunity to work with the unparalleled collection of Gilcrease Museum. Some of my favorite artists are well-represented at Gilcrease, and there are incredible possibilities for new scholarship and new exhibitions,” Fry said.
“I’m also excited to move back to the Midwest and become involved with the growing arts and culture scene in Tulsa. I love early 20th-century design, and I’m delighted to live in a city renowned for its Art Deco architecture. I look forward to exploring Tulsa and researching the fantastic Gilcrease art collection.”
Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, Fry holds a bachelor’s degree in fine art and graduated magna cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis. She holds a master’s degree in art history from the University of Denver.
Her master’s thesis was Let the American Potter Be a Professional Amateur: Laura Anne Fry and the American Art Pottery Movement.
Fry will assume her new position on December 15, 2015.