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With the closures related to
the coronavirus pandemic,
how is the Carnegie Center mak-
ing adjustments to programming?
Even though we don’t have a physical
space that we can go into right now, we
are doing that in a lot of different digital
formats. We are offering blogs that give
people suggestions for public art tours, like
the Barney Bright sculptures in downtown
New Albany, or we’re doing live classes
on Zoom for children, especially pre-K
age, because they don’t have the teachers
that are going with them to do the distance
learning. We are doing some live classes
and trying to actually take very seriously the
connected and engaged part of our mission,
because I feel like what is missing from a
lot of the programming that is produced... is
that one-on-one interaction, real-time con-
versational component that I feel that we’re
maybe unique in being able to offer that, or
at least, we’re innovative in being able to
offer that.
We’re also compiling resources for
people. There’s so much good information,
but how can we bring that all together into a
kind of a one-stop shop for what is available
to people, both for creative elements and
for historical elements? ...We put up a video
of the Tibetan monks who were here in
2019, or we’re doing collection highlights
for social media and email. We’ve also
had the opportunity to do talks and record
them and stream them via social media and
Youtube, so we’re really looking at all the
different aspects of engagement that people
can have with us in this time... We’re still
learning what that looks like. I think we all
are, to see what works, but we’re trying to
be creative.
We started our pre-K classes, which are
live, virtual classes via Zoom, and that’s for
up to 10 families. Those include story time
— we incorporate literature as much as we
can — and then I’m also doing a similar
format with Zoom live book discussions on
Willa Cather’s “O Pioneers.” In all of this
madness that we’re experiencing right now,
it’s really easy to forget some really impor-
tant historic milestones, such as the 100th
anniversary of suffrage, so to honor that, we
are highlighting American women authors.
It is a learning curve for us. We’re all
struggling to learn this new technology and
all these new platforms and different ways
of thinking about what we do. However, it’s
something we’ve always said we needed to
do, and so it kind of forces us to make that
move, if I’m looking at the bright side of
it. I miss people and being able to be with
them at the museum. We really miss being
able to show art to them and talk to them.
But this also gives us an opportunity to look
at how we can beef up our engagement
digitally beyond just trying to market what
we do as an institution.
3
What kinds of collaborations
within the community have
helped move the Carnegie Center
forward?
One of the biggest ones certainly is a
really wonderful relationship we have built
with the New Albany-Floyd County school
district. Because one of our main goals for
the past year and a half or so has been to
expand the offerings for youth education
and to make art more accessible to every-
one, we’ve built an incredible partnership
with the school district. We see almost
every second-grader in the classroom,
we see almost every third-grader in the
classroom, and we are currently looking at
potential middle school programming next
year. So we have a very strong dialogue
with the school district to be able to try
to make sure that children whose parents
may never bring them to the Carnegie
Center still get an experience and hopefully
become future arts patrons.
4
What are your goals for
expanding the Carnegie’s
reach into the community?
I think our biggest opportunity is the
growth of the youth program. In 2019, we
launched the program, and we were able to
hire a full-time museum educator who has
pretty much focused on youth programs.
That was our biggest area for potential
growth, and that grew in one year about
130 percent to serve 8,000 kids. That was
a really important initiative, and now our
goal is to maintain that kind of momentum.
It’s amazing to see that kind of growth, but
if we can’t keep that kind of relationship
with those kids over a long period of time
and qualitative kinds of engagement, then
we haven’t done our job yet. I think that’s
something we have to focus on.
When it comes to the broader commu-
nity, it’s about making sure we look at our
programs and have a diversity of content
and a diversity of artists represented, a
diversity of stories represented so that many
different people from different parts of the
community feel welcomed and engaged
with what we do as an institution. That is a
very big way of saying, we have to make
sure we are diverse in our programs, in our
artists and in our marketing to the commu-
nity as well.
5
What has been getting you
through the coronavirus pan-
demic as you are stuck at home?
What has really inspired me is that I
can use my background working with kids
and some of things I’ve learned from our
museum educator to work with children
even from a distance. I’ve been teaching my
daughter’s peers the same art classes we’re
offering to the public through the Carnegie
Center. Those moments where I can see
the connection between people, that’s what
I need — to have that connection with
people. I’m sort of a natural born planner
and teacher, so I plan our days like a school
day, and we do our best to tag team as a
household.
I think the book discussions that I have
scheduled have also helped me get through,
because it forces me to take a little time
to read and enjoy that process, whereas I
might get kind of bogged down in trying to
run the household. So I think it’s probably
very different for people who don’t have
kids at home. I don’t think it’s the time I’m
going to pick up an extra new hobby, but
it’s a time where I’ve been so impressed by
the good nature that comes out in people,
and I think social media, as much as it can
do bad things, has showed me how people
show up for each other, they reach out for
each other, and they’re trying to send out
good messages and good vibes.
I stay busy. The perfect answer to this is
[a quote from] Louisa May Alcott in “Little
Women.” In a particularly trying time for
the family, Marmee basically said — as
she’s leaving to help their father who was
wounded in the Civil War — she says,
“Hope and keep busy.” And that’s really
what it is — I hope and keep busy.
May / June 2020
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