Transforming Newark Museum to Better Serve the Community

Steve Adubato goes One-on-One with Linda Harrison, Director & CEO, Newark Museum, to talk about the ways the city and the museum are transforming themselves to better serve the people and community.

6/22/19 #2222

Excerpt:

"Hi, I'm Steve Adubato. This is One on One. And more importantly, right now we're coming to you from the NJTV Agnes Varis Studio in Newark. It's exciting to be here. And we are also excited to have... all the way from San Francisco, she is Linda Harrison, Director and Chief Executive Officer of the beautiful, iconic Newark Museum Good see you. Thank you. Thank you. Good to be here. So you've been in the museum...? It's not a... I don't know if I'd call it a business, you've been a part of the museum world for a few years, right? Yeah. For several years. In San Francisco, from the Museum of the African Diaspora. Came out of the corporate world. Yeah. Crossed the table and said, "Okay. I'm gonna use those skills to make museums, and museum culture, more creative." So you come to Brick City after a national search... Yeah. ...to find a new leader? They identify you? I asked you this right before we got on the air. Help us on this. So Linda, the first time you walk in, and you see the Newark Museum...? By the way, if we can put up the website of the Newark Museum so people can find out more about it, it'd be great. First time you see it, you say? I say spectacular and provocative. Because? Because this is one of the best collections in the country. Actually in the world, in some cases. Is that right? Oh yes. Yes. We just got featured in the New York Times on our jewelry collection, which is one of the top 10 jewelry collections in the world next to Albert... Victoria and Albert's collection. In the same breath. Wow. Yeah. You know, I was also saying to you that growing up as a kid... and the city is a few blocks away from where we're taping in Newark. You know, I used to go to the Newark Museum, the Newark Public Library, around the corner, right? Right. Right. I used to hear the name John Cotton Dana? Yes. Yes. Right? John Cotton Dana… did he design...? Yeah. Talk about iconic leaders in this field of culture and the arts. Did he design the museum? He designed what is the structure, what we know as a museum, that concept of having a museum for the people, having science, having art and technology. Believe it or not, 110 years ago, he said, "We're gonna put those concepts in one place." And the shift was being a museum for the people. But you're talking about a museum for the people, but there's a transformation going on? Oh yes. Right? Describe that. Yes. Yes. Well this is one of the things that..."