Emily Devoe

Head of Marketing and Communications, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT

Emily Devoe is the Head of Marketing and Communications at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT. In this position she shares the museum's mission of supporting emerging and under recognized mid-career artists, often through the commissioning of new work, with the public through a variety of channels including press outreach and digital and print marketing campaigns. The Aldrich's history as an incubator for contemporary art greatly appeals to her and she's pleased to be a part of this ongoing mission working with artists who are often still in the germinal stages of their careers. As a student of contemporary art who is interested in participating in the dialogues shaping the art world today, her close rapport with artists and writers has been very enriching. In this position her time is primarily spent writing press releases, reaching out to writers, writing copy for emails and printed materials, overseeing design and implementation of print and digital campaigns, editing interdepartmental written material, and thinking creatively about how to reach new audiences. Museum marketing and communications is a lively field and Emily is learning a lot about the importance and responsibility of managing the voice of an institution. She's also had a lot of fun art directing photo shoots and video content.

UMass' graduate program helped further strengthen her research and writing abilities allowing her to easily convey clear, succinct messages, often about conceptually challenging material, while maintaining the integrity of the work. Additionally, Professor Karen Kurczynski was, and continues to be, an excellent mentor. Emily is grateful to have had the opportunity to work closely with her in the classroom, as a publishable paper project advisor, and as her research assistant. In addition to working closely with the faculty, Emily's experience as a TA all four semesters, including two semesters leading discussion sections and one where she mentored the students in the undergraduate museum studies practicum, allowed her to improve her rhetoric and methods of communicating the critical importance of studying art history to a wide audience. She also had the opportunity to co-organize the 16th Annual Mark Roskill Symposium, Plugged In: Art in the Digital Age, featuring keynote speaker Dr. Anne Umland of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. This timely topic could not have better foreshadowed her first post-graduate school position.