Sally Newkirk retired from the Carnegie Center for Art & History after serving as the Museum Director for 30 years. During that time, the museum underwent many changes, the most impactful of which was becoming a department of the Floyd County Library. With the support of the Library Board, the Carnegie Center, Inc. Board and community support, the museum became established in the New Albany community and beyond. The Carnegie Center received national recognition when its exhibition titled Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage: Men and Women of the Underground Railroad received a Bronze award of excellence from the American Association of Museums and acceptance in the National Parks Service “Network to Freedom” program.
Newkirk was a frequent presenter at national and regional museum conferences. She and author Pamela Peters were invited to speak at the Royal Armories Museum in Leeds, England where the Ordinary People, Extraordinary People exhibit was on display for 12 weeks. Newkirk has received several awards, including the Indiana Council for History’s Social Studies Citizen Award in 1996, the first Anna Kathryn Hickerson Award in 2007, and BPW Woman of Achievement award and inclusion in the Floyd Central High School Hall of Fame in 2012.
Her work in the community includes service on the IU 51ÁÔÆæ Board of Advisors, YMCA Board, Clark-Floyd Tourism Board, Arts and Cultural Attractions Board, the Association of Indiana Museums Board and more. She is a member of the New Albany Rotary Club and was recently sworn in as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA).
Sally and her husband, Michael, a retired high school English teacher, have three children, thirteen grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.