Early Curatorial Career:

After returning to Pennsylvania from ten years in the arts, education + hospitality sector in Connecticut, Emily was accepted as an inaugural artist in the newly created Goggleworks Center for the Arts, a community, block-wide initiative founded by leading philanthropists and retailers in the Central PA region. She was selected as the first of two Artist Representatives to the Board of Directors. She worked as a studio artist in addition to other community-minded positions.

Ms. Branch began curating solo and group shows as the Gallery Director at the Outsider Folk Art Gallery, including SOFAExpo Air Fair, Chicago and the Outsider Art Fair, NYC. She published a featured article in Antiques & Fine Art Magazine regarding the importance of the late African-American Folk Artist Purvis Young. The Outsider Folk Art Gallery later was honored by the Smithsonian American Art Museum as it received the key image from this article into its permanent collection.

She curated the four person exhibition “Intertwined” at Albright College’s Freedman Gallery, collaborated with Chutima “Nok” Kerdpitak, a rising London Curator, to bring Circus Terminal Worldwide, a traveling exhibition of works of 76 artists from 18 countries, both “outsiders and insiders” to Pennsylvania with two weeks of accompanying workshops and presentations by participating artists. Local organizations, Reading Theater Project and Berks Bards contributed events during the exhibition. She then traveled to Amsterdam and New Zealand as a guest Curator for the traveling exhibition.

She later led the acquisition and cataloguing of 1000+ works by the Philadelphia artist Jim Bloom at Material Culture, Philadelphia, PA. She concluded her role curating an exhibition by Jim Bloom, Serbian artist Vladan Gradistanac, Philadelphia artist Maryann Matlock Hinkle (1941-2008), African Artist Prince Twins Seven Seven (1944-2011) and Gregory Warmack “Mr. Imagination” (1948-2012) whose works grace The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC, The American Visionary Museum in Baltimore, MD, the Museum of American Folk Art, New York, NY, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA, and other institutions.

Emily was selected to represent regional artists in the Reading/Reutlingen Exchange for 17 days in Germany and Switzerland.

Evolution of Cage Free Design:

Once her cataloguing and exhibition was complete in Philadelphia, Emily pivoted her company from Curating + Art-Making to working as a full-time Consultant with a focus on Events + Public Relations.

She continued to consult with multiple clients in the for-profit and non-profit space and recently received her M.S. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. She aims to help her future clients with creative interventions to heal past trauma and hurt. Emily recently completed a three year training with the Pennsylvania Gestalt Center and is trained in EMDR and DBT to further inform her future practice.

She is an active volunteer recently completing 10 years of volunteer service to New Arts Program, Kutztown and 3 years with the Central PA Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). While pursuing her MS she served as the Outreach Coordinator for the Culture Collective, a student run group at Lock Haven University whose goal is to increase cultural + gender competency for students within the Counseling curriculum. In Philadelphia, she works with the East Falls Community Fridge and is the Newsletter Editor for the Friends of the Falls of the Schuylkill Library.

This Summer, Emily will begin he journey with Sanare’s Turning Point Program as a DBT-Focused Therapist.

Contact Emily: studio@cagefreedesign.com