The Haines Sheldon Museum is getting a new director, and is being reaccredited. We spoke with new director Brandon Wilks and past director CJ Jones.
The board of the Haines Sheldon Museum hired Brandon Wilks to be the next executive director of the organization. Wilks has lived in Haines for a couple years, and has worked at the library, the hammer museum – which is, in fact, a museum of hammers and at KHNS. Wilks says he will stay involved with the hammers and the radio, but his main focus will be on the Sheldon museum.
Wilks: “It’s time to move on, and I’m really proud to be part of the Sheldon Museum, part of that institution to help preserve the history of the Chilkat Valley.”
The museum has operated without a director for some time, and board members have filled in where they can. But this year, the museum is getting reaccredited. This is a complicated process that takes place every 10 years. Accreditation recognizes that the museum is following the best standards. To go through this, the museum’s board called in two previous directors, Jerry Clarke and CJ Jones.
Jones: “Neither one of us would do it alone, but together we came back.”
Jones describes the lengthy re-accreditation process.
Jones: “What they want to see is that your core documents are up to snuff, like your bylaws, your collection management policy, your strategic plan, particularly that, your disaster plan, your emergency plan, that those are all current and active.”
Jones says they turned in the documents six weeks ago, and expects the entire process to last another year and a half.
This means Wilks is hitting the ground running.
Wilks: ”It is like drinking out of a fire hose. There is so much information coming at me right now.”
Jones says there are a few things a new museum director has to learn.
Jones: “What’s going on here at the museum, how it’s been operating, learning the staff, and what they do, all the different jobs. And then the learning curve is a lot of museum things. How you care for collections, how you manage collections, how they can be used, how they need to be stored. All the different aspects of cataloging, things like that.”
The list goes on.
Jones: “But then also too, he is going to be doing grant writing, he’ll be doing budgets, he’ll be working with community outreach.”
It’s a lot. Wilks says he is most impressed by the number of things that can go wrong when caring for a collection.
Wilks: “There is so many ways that a collection can fall apart. Everything from temperature control, humidity, all the way down to touching things with your bare hands, the oil on your hands, bugs getting into the collection, making sure all things are digitized. Maintaining that collection in proper order so things don’t get thrown in the trash. That does happen from time to time. It’s not properly labeled so people think it’s junk, and it’s not, it’s a really important piece of a collection.”
Wilks says he is honored to step into the director position. He says he still remembers the day he fell in love with history.
Wilks: “I was seven years old, I was at cub scout camp,and my father came to visit, and I just remember sitting at a picnic table with him, and I’m not sure hoe the conversation came up, but he started telling me about the battle of Bunker Hill, and describing the long line of british soldiers wearing bright red as they marched up the hill and were repulsed again and again. And something in my brain just clicked, and I needed to know more.”
Wilks says after camp, he went to his school library. He started reading more about history. The American Revolution led to the Napoleonic Wars, this led to the medieval era, then, a stint in the military, a major in history, and this job at the Sheldon Museum.
Jones says she expects Wilks will do well on the job.
Jones: “Everybody that we talked with recommended him super highly. Which says a lot.”
A big test for Wilks will come in the Spring. Jones says as part of the re-accreditation process, a crew will come and do an onsite inspection of the museum.
Jones: “Two people come, two peers from somewhere around the country, come and spend three days on site, looking around, questioning every single staff member, talking to volunteers, questioning the board, together and individually, walking around town anonymously talking to the community, asking what people think about the museum, things like that.”
The inspectors will then make a recommendation to a review committee who will determine whether to issue the re-accreditation. Wilks isn’t afraid, his voice bursts with enthusiasm as he talks about the work ahead.
Wilks: “All of our stories, our collective stories, are there in history. Our successes and tragedies, mistakes, everything, it’s all there, all the lessons that should be learned are there. I love it, I love sharing history with people, and hopefully I can do that at the Sheldon Museum. Hopefully I can continue to tell the story of this little slice of the world. And I think it’s a really fascinating story that should be shared.”
Wilks’ first day on the job was this Tuesday.
