I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Russ White of MSU Today. Russ is a great interviewer. He has a talent for putting his subjects at ease and in a conversational mood. Our conversation explored the recent merging of Science Gallery with the MSU Museum, my leadership of both, and the plans for revitalizing the museum in the coming years.

A transcript, along with the audio from the interview, can be found at WKAR. Some excerpts from our conversation:

“The very first thing we’re going to do is put our heads down and actually put together a strong strategic plan and think about, in that planning process, what are the types of resources we need? What does our programming look like over the next five years? In general, and especially coming out of consulting, I’ve learned that one of the number one barriers that prohibits organizations from truly flourishing in the arts sector is not planning out far enough. You don’t have enough time to think creatively, to fundraise, to market, and to educate your audiences. We’re going to put our heads down and really build a strong roadmap. And in that process, we’ll really understand and figure out what we’re going to do. But I think there are some overarching things we can already assume.

We’ll be thinking broadly about how we embed things across the campus community. We know we’re competing for time and attention. We have to meet people where they are. We have to be relevant. We have to be creative and innovative in that programming. So, it’s really top of mind to think critically about the partnerships we have in student success and academic success and how we support that. We want to be truly relevant in the life of students.