Emily Schuchardt Navratil brings deep knowledge of the Jan and Marica Vilcek art collection, and the Vilcek Foundation art program in general, to her position as curator. She is charged with the curation and research of the Vilcek Foundation’s art collections; generating cataloguing records; organizing the art collection database and records; and planning and supporting scholarly publications and exhibitions. Dr. Navratil curated Ralston Crawford: Torn Signs, the inaugural exhibition at the new Foundation headquarters in May 2019, and wrote the catalogue entries for the accompanying catalogue. In May 2013, she curated the exhibition With Color, to coincide with the publication of Masterpieces of American Modernism: From the Vilcek Collection (she wrote the book’s illustrated timeline and artists’ biographies).

In addition to exhibitions at the foundation’s headquarters, she works with other institutions to reach audiences outside of New York, via both long-term loans of single works and larger, collection-focused exhibitions. These partnerships include the exhibition New York to New Mexico: Masterworks of American Modernism from the Vilcek Collection, which opened in 2015 at the Philbrook Museum of Art and traveled to the Phoenix Art Museum and Georgia O’Keeffe Museum; long-term loans to the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Florida and the Dayton Art Institute in Ohio; and an exhibition of highlights from the collection at the Art Museum of South Texas in 2018.

Dr. Navratil earned a Ph.D. in art history from the Graduate Center, City University of New York, and a master’s degree from Hunter College. Her interest in art is wide-ranging, from Native North American art to Piet Mondrian and Willem de Kooning. She has worked for major institutions, notably the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Montclair Art Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art. Dr. Navratil has been involved with the Vilcek Collection since 2009, previously serving as associate curator, assistant curator, and curatorial assistant.