Museums

I worked for the Minnesota Historical Society at the James J. Hill House in St. Paul, MN for over twelve years. I started as a tour guide, then a few years later I also became a weekend/evening event manager. I left to go to graduate school (City University, London, Arts & Cultural Management), and when I moved back to the Twin Cities I unexpectedly (but happily!) returned to the Hill House.

Following is a sample of what I did as the Program Supervisor for nearly seven years. The short version: I managed daily operations of the tour program. The more detailed version:

• Hired, trained and supervised staff and volunteers
• Developed the Hill House social media presence
• Worked on two website redesigns, including writing content
• Updated the sales desk to an online cash register
• Wrote training manuals for operating the register and for creating daily and monthly reports for others within the institution
• Developed programs to bring in new audiences, including a story time and Easter Egg Hunt to bring in families with young children
• Revamped existing programs to bring in new audiences or meet changing needs of current audiences
• Worked with vendors and rental clients
• Represented the site on committees within the organization and at national conferences
• Jumped in to lead tours and other programs as needed

In the last year or two my favorite projects were those that shared stories from the house with larger audiences – sharing Mary Hill diary quotes about the weather on our website, working on an online tour based on historic photos and excerpts from letters, providing content for students to develop an interactive online game in the house.