New director brings youthful energy to history museum

The Museum at Central School’s new executive director, precocious 28-year-old Michigander Jacob Thomas, is not what the people who hired him were used to.

But he was precisely what they were looking for.

“What we don’t have in experience we’ll have in new ideas and energy,” Laurie Happ, the president of the museum’s board of directors said.

Thomas started in early April and is 43 years younger than his now-retired predecessor, Gil Jordan, who served as executive director for 12 years. In his position, Thomas becomes the museum’s lone full-time employee.

“We were excited that he was young and he brought youth and energy,” Happ continued. “He’s good with social media and website management, and that’s something that we’ve needed help with down there. We think that he’ll be able to help us reach out and maybe reach people that we haven’t been able to get before.”

While Thomas brings less of what Happ called Jordan’s “life experience,” his schooling and prior work have been leading him down this path for 14 years. The Detroit-area native said he first fell in love with history on a school field trip to Gettysburg in eighth grade when he, a friend and his dad were the only three people not to retreat back to the bus when offered a chance to explore the historic battlefield.

“The three of us walked around and looked at all the monuments,” Thomas recalled. “And at that point I thought to myself, ‘you know, it seems like I like this stuff a lot more than other people my age. I think this is something I could probably do for a living.’”

Thomas took Advanced Placement classes to further his history education in high school, graduated Magna Cum Laude with a public history degree from Western Michigan University and earned a master’s in museum studies at Appalachian State. He’s worked for museums in two states and comes to Kalispell from the Charlevoix Historical Society, where as curator of creations he was the museum’s only full-time employee.

A self-described Civil War buff in high school, Thomas believes his mix of modern schooling and passion for history — a subject typically reserved for adults many years his senior — will keep him balanced in his new job.

Thomas and Happ are both trying to walk the fine line of modernizing the museum and attracting a younger audience, while not alienating their current batch of much older donors and members.

“While you’re changing things you can’t forget about your base,” Thomas said. “Our base, and every museum’s base of donors and volunteers, is older than I am.”

ONE OF Thomas’ goals is to refresh the museum’s current exhibitions. All except for a small rotating exhibit near the building’s main entrance are at least 10 years old, and Thomas said that’s not surprising. According to him, lavish, expensive, permanent exhibits were extremely popular from the 1980s through 2000s but in recent years the industry has taken a dramatic turn.

“Since I’ve been in school and gotten out of school there has been a complete 180 switch,” Thomas said. “Although they look nice, every exhibit gets dated … Plus, it limits you. If it’s up there it’s going to take up a bunch of space and the more money you spend you’re going to be loathe to replace it.”

Ideally, Thomas said, two of the museum’s four main exhibition spaces will eventually be what he called semi-permanent, staying up for around 10 years. The other two would rotate every two to three years.

“You’re looking for people to come back,” Thomas said, explaining the philosophical change. “Once you’ve seen it, you’ve seen it. I think you want to show that you’re a dynamic organization; you’re open to change, you’re open to movement, you’re open for growth.”

“We talked about keeping (the exhibits) fresh and what we can do with people coming in and visiting the museum,” Happ said. “We’re anxious to work with him on some of that.”

Thomas already has one new exhibit in mind, a showcase of photography from around the turn of the 20th century by lumber mill operator Matthew Eccles, a project for which he is applying for both state and federal grants. In addition, recovered pieces of the shipwrecked Kee-O-Mee, a 1920s-era boat that was recovered from Somers Bay late last year, should also be on display at the museum in the next several weeks.

But there is more on Thomas’ plate than just exhibitions. He’s resurrected the museum’s Facebook page and is working on changes to the website. He also mentioned the possibility of building a virtual tour or app for the museum.

The 123-year-old building also requires regular maintenance, and Thomas said he’s becoming both an “ad hoc electrician” and learning the basics of heating and cooling repair, especially after the museum’s heating system shut down on his first day on the job. Happ said it was important they found an executive director who could “troubleshoot” building issues, and small repairs have in recent years been handled either by Jordan or a group of volunteers. That money-saving tactic is especially important for Thomas since the group’s finances also fall under his purview. That’s where toeing the line between the future and the past collides with the present.

“Money is always an issue,” Thomas said. “Finding ways to keep the doors open and balancing that with spending money and trying to improve this place.

“It’s the law of diminishing returns, almost. How much money are you going to spend versus what good that money will do.”

The Museum at Central School is located at 124 Second Ave. E. in Kalispell. More information is available at www.yourmuseum.org.

Entertainment editor Andy Viano can be reached at (406) 758-4439 or aviano@dailyinterlake.com.