Here are some EXAMPLES of brief narratives.
KUDOS: The Long Island Museum in Stony Brook, New York, won a 2016 SmartCEO Magazine Corporate Culture Award. The Corporate Culture Awards program honors companies that foster creative, collaborative workplace cultures to enhance performance and sustain a competitive advantage. According to SmartCEO, "Smart leaders understand that culture is a company's greatest asset, driving performance and growth."
KUDOS: Terrie S. Rouse, president of Rouse Consulting, and former AAM Accreditation Commissioner, was recognized by the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc.‑–MECCA Chapter during its 5th annual scholarship and fashion fundraiser in March. The scholarship event recognizes the accomplishments of African-American women in education, arts and cultural affairs, corporate and community service.
RETIRING: Gordon H. “Nick” Mueller will retire as CEO and president of the National WWII Museum, June 30, taking on a part-time role as president and CEO emeritus. As the founding president, Mueller created the museum with historian and long-time friend Stephen Ambrose. Under his leadership, the museum has grown into a world-class, six-acre institution, and fundraising and design preparations for the final major projects in a $400 million capital expansion are nearly complete.
RETIRING: Beth E. Levinthal retired in January as executive director, Hofstra University Museum in Hempstead, New York. Previously she was executive director (2000-2006); director of eduation/public programs (1996-2000); and school, youth, and family program coordinator (1994-96) for the Heckscher Museum of Art in Huntington, New Yokr. Among other honors, Levinthal received the Anne Ackerson Innovation in Museum Leadership Award in 2015 from the Museum Association of New York. She continues as a peer reviewer for AAM and on the boards of MANY and the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums.
IN MEMORIAM: Barry Lord, co-founder of Lord Cultural Resources, died March 9. He was 77. He founded Lord Cultural Resources with wife Gail Dexter Lord in response to the need for a systematic approach to planning museums in 1981. They published the world’s first book on museum planning, Planning our Museums/Planification de nos Musées in 1983. The approach was elegant in its simplicity with three sections: Planning for People, Planning for Collections, and Planning for Facilities. Putting the public first was a new idea at the time, however it resonated with museum professionals around the world. Lord engaged tirelessly with museum planning projects, and was a frequent speaker on the topic at conferences and museum studies programs.
IN MEMORIAM: E. Verner Johnson of Boston, an internationally distinguished architect whose vision and innovation set new standards for the comprehensive master planning and design of museums, died on February 24. He was 79. During his long career, he specialized exclusively in museums and was involved with more than 200 projects around the world. Johnson’s design innovations—open, flexible exhibit areas structured in long-span pre-cast concrete; glass railings to increase visual connections; escalators; a central multi-level exhibit orientation space—had never been seen in museums before, but have now been widely adopted.