Hello and Good-bye
We have lots of news to report regarding the Museum’s staff. As of February, Jillian Harrington switched to part-time status and focused her responsibilities on our live music programming. So, she will still be booking all of the exciting concerts which have been consistently selling out these days!
The change meant that we could bring on Julia Fister as a part-time Museum Education Specialist. Julia will be working with our facilitators and docents on all educational tours for students and adults, developing interpretive materials and activities related to special exhibitions, evaluating and expanding our outreach programs, and much more.
Julia was born and raised in St. Louis, MO. She has an undergraduate degree in finance from the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, which led to an early career in investment banking in Houston and St. Louis. (That’s an unusual background, we know, but keep reading!) Julia figured out that while finance had its strong points, the arts were definitely more fun and fulfilling. She then attended Fontbonne University in St. Louis and received a degree in art, which led her into graphic design work. After a move to California in 2001, she obtained her Masters in art history from San Diego State University. She began lecturing in art history for several senior programs, and continues to lecture for OASIS, a senior adult program, at various locations around San Diego.
Fister started her museum career at the Oceanside Museum of Art (OMA) as a volunteer in 2010. They soon asked her to develop an on-site student tour program for fifth-graders in the Oceanside Unified School District and surrounding areas. Promoted to Director of Education a few years later, she continued to build an education department to strengthen adult and children’s programming. Her time at OMA ignited a passion for ensuring that children and families have access to the arts. Fister now works part-time for the City of Carlsbad’s Cultural Arts Office, teaching at the Cannon Art Gallery and Leo Carrillo Ranch Historic Park, in addition to taking on this challenge as MoMM’s new Museum Education Specialist.
Finally, we say farewell to Mike Hendrickson, our Manager of Operations and Exhibitions, who is retiring after 9 years here at the Museum. While we are happy for him as he enters a new life phase, we will miss him tremendously. One of the things Mike was most known for is his work on our special exhibitions. Mike was especially instrumental (no pun intended) in helping us organize and present Banjos: A New Day for an Old Instrument; What Music Means to Me; LOW: The Power and Beauty of Bass; Dreadnought: 100 Years of a Mighty Martin Guitar; and Summer of Innovation. Mike was also directly involved in presenting spotlight exhibitions such as the current Graham Nash photo display and the Casio products show.
Will Mike be hard to replace? We’d need a whole page to list all the things he did here at the Museum. And did so well.
