It's a crazy busy summer at the museum. Here's an inside peek from the director

One of the things I love about museum work is that no two days are alike. That said, there are few times in my 30-year career where I recall such a confluence of activity happening simultaneously.

We’re wrapping up fiscal year 2024. Thank you to all of you who supported the museum this year, and came to see “Childhood Favorites: One Hundred Years of Children’s Book Illustration” and “Picasso on Paper: The Artist as Printmaker 1923-1972.” The great turnout for those shows provided a wonderful boost to our attendance and our donations.

And now we are onward to fiscal year 2025 — with an exciting slate of exhibitions in store and a summer full of the work of living artists — both in our “Cumberland Valley Artists” exhibition and our newly opened “Art, Fashion, Symbol, Statement: Tattooing in America 1960s to Today.” Here are some notes made between June 4 and June 20:

Saturday, June 15 — I was here at the museum as we celebrated the opening of the “Cumberland Valley” show. We welcomed the award-winning artists and many others. I loved listening to the artists talk to each other — sharing details on processes, inspiration and working methods. And just five days later, we gathered again to open the tattoo exhibition, a major project involving 18 artists, loans from other museums and more than 170 objects.

What happened in between those two events pretty much bookended my work week, which consisted of many meetings, lots of email (sorry if I owe you an email), activities in the community and very few quiet moments to think. That is why I am always thankful I work in a beautiful environment and can steal a few breaths of peace either in the galleries or in City Park when necessary.

You might be surprised at what a busy, bustling place the museum can be.

While I work, Donna Rastelli (who many of you know) is on the phone being her always friendly and helpful self. I can overhear her taking reservations for the tattoo opening, answering questions and commiserating with people over the heat wave.

As manager of visitor and volunteer services, Donna is also helping to keep our Singer Society volunteer tally the votes for the Cumberland Valley Photographers Exhibition People’s Choice Award. Often, she’s on the phone telling parents about our programming (Do we still have space in summer camp? What programs are appropriate for a really talented teen? Those are just some of the questions she gets.)

June 18 — This week we had 15 kids between ages 8 and 12 in the museum for a full-week, full-day summer camp. I love hearing the sounds of the kids as they work in the classroom or explore the galleries. It was a particularly productive week as the kids had the opportunity to learn directly from visiting local artists in the “Cumberland Valley” show. The fruits of their labors, on display in the museum hall cases, are pretty fabulous. Stop by and take a look.

In the galleries, Sarah Wolfe, our manager of collections & exhibitions has, been monitoring the contractors who are building custom walls for the tattoo show. While they work, she manages the multiple deadlines for exhibition graphics, prepares the labels and has been installing the special wallpaper we had produced, which is transforming the look of the galleries.

Director of Education Kellie Mele is always juggling a number of things — solidifying programming dates for July through September to get in our printed program calendar, planning our summer Garden Nights at the Museum, coordinating the participants in our Tattoo Expo set for July 13 and making sure the summer camp teachers and students have the support they need.

Agnita M. Stine Schrieber Curator Daniel Fulco is reviewing tattoo texts, drafting labels and writing his popular Weekend Art posts.

Christina Nemir, my assistant, spent time hand-addressing invitations to the tattoo opening for our nonprofit, cultural and government colleagues. She’s also making sure I answer those emails if they sit too long, and coordinating the details of the tattoo opening — from deliveries to volunteer assignments and hydration stations — with nearly military precision.

Christina and Director of Marketing and Communications Crystal Schelle have worked to pull together a list of contemporary art galleries in the Baltimore and DC region to make sure they get information about the tattoo exhibition opening. Crystal also is working on ad placement related to summer travel and tattoo promotion, and printed materials to promote our summer programs including the upcoming calendar.

Elizabeth Smith, our director of development, is working with Donna to come up with a new plan for promoting museum membership, and she’s working with our capital campaign committee on the quiet phase of our capital campaign. She’s also writing grant proposals to submit to the Washington County Arts Council and working with our tattoo party sponsors (McClintock Distilling) on details for the event.

In the garden, Manager of Facilities Mike Churchey is cleaning up and raking, while goslings in three different sizes graze nearby.

Membership letters land on my desk. (I sign every one — please join the museum so that the number becomes untenable and we have to resort to a computer signature.) I have architectural proposals for our expansion to review, and I have all of the tattoo texts and graphics to approve. We have holiday planning underway (yes, that starts in June), and we’re getting ready for a board meeting next week. At our building committee meeting we discussed roofing and skylight issues and the rubric we will use to evaluate the architectural proposals for our upcoming expansion.

The emails arrive steadily. We’re also working on the annual report and need to select a new audio system that we received funding to purchase.

And as we work through all of this, I want to share with you some remarks I made at the opening of “Art, Fashion, Symbol, Statement: Tattooing in America 1960s to Today”:

“If you listen to me talk about the museum with any regularity you might have heard me say that I don’t like us being referred to as a small museum … we are small only by the measure of our annual budget and only by comparison to wealthier institutions in bigger cities.

"We are mighty — in terms of the strength of our collection, our dedication to mission, and our belief in the impact museums have on communities.

"AND we are ambitious.”

I think all of you, as part of our community, can feel the energy when you visit. I hope to see you in the galleries soon!