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Press Release

Museum Welcomes Lydia Davis, Kress Interpretive Fellow

December 4, 2023

Previous intern continues her audience experience work and research

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE–November 30, 2023 (Santa Fe, NM) – The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum is proud to welcome Lydia Davis as the Kress Interpretive Fellow. Made possible by a generous grant from Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the Museum is one of seven museums nationwide to be awarded funding for this position.

Photograph of a person with glasses and a necklace smiling at the camera in front of greenery.
Lydia Davis

As the Kress Interpretive Fellow Davis will work on audience research to help the Museum understand its visitors and evaluate current installations and exhibitions. This research will inform future plans in the new Georgia O’Keeffe Museum building, set to open in 2026. Davis will also learn and assist in interpretive planning and development of materials.

“We are thrilled to welcome Lydia back to the Museum,” Deputy Director for Collections and Interpretation Jennifer Foley said. “Lydia has a tremendous passion for interpretation work. She brought both insight and curiosity to her time as an intern, and we are excited for her to continue her career and research with us.”

Davis is a recent graduate of Dartmouth College, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History. Davis was the Interpretation and Audience Research Intern during the summer of 2023, a position that explored visitor reactions in the Galleries. The internship was funded by the Association of Art Museum Directors. Davis plans to pursue a career as a museum curator and hopes her fellowship will allow her to gain experience in organizing exhibitions that are impactful to a wide audience.

“The O’Keeffe has been a space of growth for my career and I look forward to continuing on in the coming year,” Davis said. “One of the most powerful things a museum can do is convey a variety of different experiences and I’m excited to be a part of that work at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.”  

The Kress Interpretive Fellowship at Art Museums program is designed to provide a new line of mentored professional development opportunities within art museums in the United States. The program is intended to encourage students to explore interpretive careers in art museums, whether as future museum educators or curators; to strengthen the profession of museum educator within the art museum community; to strengthen ties between museum educators and curators in the shared task of interpretive programming in art museums; and to expand the range of promising career options available to students of art history and related fields.

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For media inquiries, contact:

Renee Lucero | Public Relations Manager 505-946-1063 rlucero@gokm.org

ABOUT THE GEORGIA O’KEEFFE MUSEUM: Since 1997, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum celebrates the art, life, and independent spirit of Georgia O’Keeffe. Located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where Georgia O’Keeffe lived the final decades of her life, the O’Keeffe has sites and experiences in two historic destinations, Santa Fe and Abiquiú. For more information, please visit gokm.org.

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