Alison Tisue, 27, was recently hired to be the curator of collections at the White River Valley Museum.
Q. What exactly does a curator of collections do?
A. I am responsible for all the artifacts – that’s everything on display and everything that is back in storage. I would say 90 percent of our collection is back in storage, so it needs to be preserved and cared for. We change out the exhibits, so we bring things that are not on display out into the exhibit. We also do things with loans. Right now, we have a Salish weaving exhibit that is going to open Aug. 19, and I’ve been getting in lots of new artifacts that are going to go in that exhibit. Then there are things that are going to come down from our quilt exhibit here. So anything that’s artifactual that comes and goes from the museum is my responsibility.
Q. Tell us a bit about your background.
A. I am originally from Decorah, a small Norwegian town in Iowa. My mother, Diane, is a hospice nurse, and my dad, Bill, is a nurse anesthetist. I graduated from high school in 1998 and went to the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. There were a couple of stints to Chicago and Italy and Montana in there. In Italy, I was in Venice and Florence for study abroad. The first summer out of college, I worked on a dude ranch, cleaning out guest rooms and waitressing and stuff. When I was working toward my undergraduate degree, I did an internship at the Minnesota Children’s Museum and was able to work with teenagers, and I really got excited about the museum environment, creating exhibits and working with kids. That’s really weird, because I don’t work with kids now.
Q. Where were you at before WRVM?
A. I was working at the Henry Art Gallery on the University of Washington campus. I was in grad school there for museology and just graduated in June. I was able to work at the Henry for a couple of years. I also got some experience at the Seattle Art Museum and cleaned stuff at the Olympic Sculpture Park.
Q. Have you always wanted to work in museums?
A. Dude, I had no idea what I wanted to do! They never tell you about working in museums when you are in small-town Iowa. But I just felt my way through it. The internships at the Children’s Museum and another internship after that at the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice really solidified my wanting to work in museums. Being abroad really opened up experiences and contacts and opportunities that allowed me to go wherever I wanted, gave me the confidence to do whatever I wanted.
Q. What do you do with your free time?
A. When I was in grad school, I had no free time, but I have a little bit now. I watch “Malcolm in the Middle” in the mornings. I have watched it for years and have probably seen all the episodes 100 times. It’s ridiculous! I also like animation and collect a lot of Disney movies, you know, odd kid movies. I used to cook a lot, and I want to get back into that.
Q. What do you love most about your job?
A. Getting to discover things about the artifacts. Like this Harry Tracy book that we just got in the collection. There’s a chapter in that book that is Mary Olson’s first-hand account of Harry Tracy holding her and her family hostage and sending the husband off to Tacoma. That was so cool when I found that. And we have the actual gun that Tracy shot himself with. I like building those connections between artifacts and the things we have here — fun connections in history.
