Maritime Museum Professional
Education Director
Overview
People involved in the maritime museum field focus on creating exhibits and collections that tell the stories and history of maritime culture, artifacts, and legacy. Rather than working on ships, this career connects the public to the maritime field and emphasizes its value.
Day-to-day work
Maritime museum educators facilitate learning across units and departments, inside the museum and with external partners. They regularly meet with a variety of individuals to expand upon and build new educational opportunities for the public. They are also highly involved in the maritime history talks that are given to the public, including at schools, retirement homes, and local businesses. They craft presentations and schedule staff to give these talks or present themselves. In essence, Maritime Museum Educators synthesize their knowledge of the maritime industry with their communication skills to make this information easily accessible.
Meet Katy Menne
Education Director at Columbia River Maritime Museum
Katy Menne is the Education Director at the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria. Oregon. She oversees a wide range of activities, from coordinating the museum volunteers to supervising the employees who engage with the public and present outreach talks. Katy received a Bachelor degree in History from the University of South Carolina and a Master degree in Secondary Education. After an influential internship in public history, she pursued the museum industry and eventually landed her current job as the Educational Director. Katy mentioned that while this position is an intersection of her interests that she could not have predicted, it taught her to say yes to challenges she may not feel prepared for, because every experience teaches you something.
Read the interview with Katy Menne!
As the Education Director, Katy oversees the museum's educational programs, which range from engaging visitors of the museum and outreach in school classrooms to giving speeches on a wide range of maritime subjects. She manages the education department, including its 71 volunteers and 9 employees. Katy oversees the departmental budgeting, training, onboarding, and cross-department connections. One of the most memorable projects she has worked on was creating a brochure for their lightship, the museum's largest artifact; essentially a floating lighthouse positioned outside the museum. Unless visitors know what to look for, they tend to miss the important aspects, such as where the crew would work and how the lightship would run. Based on questions volunteers often receive, Katy and her team designed a brochure to orient visitors in the lightship when visiting the museum.
Katy’s days tend to vary, an aspect she really appreciates. Some days are spent on meetings, coordinating volunteers, answering emails, and further developing teaching efforts. Other days are spent travelling up and down the Oregon Coast to give a variety of educational talks. For example, at the time of this interview, her upcoming schedule included driving to Portland to give a talk at a senior living center, then back to Astoria to talk about sea-aged whiskey and the vessels required for that product. Her favorite lecture to give is either are about the museum’s lightship or the predecessors and development of the US Coast Guard.
Katy’s favorite parts of working in an education-related job are being able to explain something that someone has never thought about or watching someone “get it”. In addition, she enjoys talking about her job and watching people become more interested in the industry. She mentioned that both the maritime industry and the museum industry are “graying out”, meaning many of their employees in these industries are older, and many younger people are not interested in this field. Being able to spark someone's interest is always rewarding to see, and she encourages young professionals to enter the museum industry.
While completing her undergraduate degree in History from the University of South Carolina, Katy had the opportunity to participate in an internship focused on public history. She absolutely loved this experience and is still in touch with her internship supervisor. She went on to earn her Master degree in Secondary Education and gained her teaching license. Through her internship connections, Katy gained positions in a variety of museums before landing her job at the Columbia River Maritime Museum, where her interest in public history and passion for education intersected in a way she had not expected.
The most important skills that Katy applies to her job daily are communication, adaptability, and multitasking. Especially in the museum industry, she emphasizes that being able to talk to people, well and professionally, is a type of customer service that is critical for anyone interacting with visitors. In addition, adaptability and multitasking are skills that are hard to teach but incredibly helpful to have.
For people focused on acquiring an education-related job, Katy highly recommended showcasing experience in leadership, such as managing people, training peers, or leading a successful project. On the museum side, she highly recommends getting your foot in the door early, in whatever way you can, through internships or volunteering. Katy says that there are many museums nationwide, but people in the industry are well-connected and often know of one another.
On a more general note, she recommended taking on challenges you may not love and saying yes to things you are unsure about or don’t necessarily feel prepared for.
Katy mentioned that she rarely considers someone’s academic history and is much more focused on relevant experience and transferable skills. She mainly looks for people’s ability to be a team player, work well with other employees, interact with guests, and give/receive feedback. She mentioned that, while having expertise in the subject is helpful, the aforementioned skills are the main things she looks for because they are much harder to teach.
Katy mentioned there was very little she wished she had done differently during her career. Even experiences she didn’t love taught her something that she has been able to draw upon later in her career.
The main challenge Katy encountered trying to pursue a museum education-focused career was finding open positions, especially full-time ones. She mentioned that people tend to land jobs in the museum industry and keep them for a long time (until they retire). She overcame this by utilizing the connection she had with her internship supervisor. After her internship, the museum had an open position and hired her.
Building upon her previous answers, Katy said that getting involved and meeting people as early as possible is important for this field of work. She highly recommends that students get involved with museum associations and professional organizations through conferences and student memberships. For students more interested in hands-on maritime operations, she emphasized certifications and licenses and gaining entry experience as a deckhand on a vessel, which normally does not require any prior experience.
Katy’s main piece of advice for undergraduates is to show your perseverance when applying for jobs you really want. Just because the answer was “no once does not mean the answer is “no” forever. Showcase your dedication, and it will pay off.
Throughout the interview, Katy mentioned many organizations he had been involved with, or that students could become involved with.
"Even the experiences you don’t entirely love or don’t entirely feel prepared for will teach you something."
- Katy Menne