Edward Kelley and Emily Newman, Parts Per Million Collective, are contemporary artists and educators based in Des Moines, Iowa. Both artists maintain individual artistic practices while also being married with a family. As the collaborative team both artists come from backgrounds steeped in object making.

Edward received a BA in art from the College of Charleston, Charleston, SC, and an MFA in sculpture from Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY. Edward is a faculty member and studio technician in the Department of Art and Design at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. Emily holds a BFA in sculpture from Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY and an MFA in studio art from the University of Nebraska Lincoln. She is an Associate Professor of Art at Drake University in Des Moines.

As educators, Edward and Emily connect past and present visual language and explore cross-discipline approaches to find global solutions. Edward uses an interactive mixed media approach to subjects of social and personal concerns through a lens of humor and the absurd. Emily’s artwork is made using found and recycled packaging as an observed commentary on the domestic habits of consumption. Her intimate objects highlight the craft of the handmade and the design of the mass-produced.

And as parents, Edward and Emily aim to be good stewards to our Earth. Their collective, Parts Per Million, explores the current direction of artmaking and presents an alternative, sustainable model merging current scientific research with sculpture.

“Artists and scientists are both asking questions about the world, they’re just doing it in different ways”
Alex Braidwood
Director, Iowa Lakeside Lab Artists-in-Residence Program

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