New museum director connects with Palmer

PALMER — She’s not in Wyoming anymore.

Melissa Jenski had at least one thing in common with her husband when they met at architecture school — he was from Alaska and she had heard of Alaska.

Less than a year after moving to Palmer from Boston, Jenski is about a month into her new gig as executive director for the Palmer Museum of History and Art. Although she didn’t have any experience working with nonprofit organizations or museums, she’s excited to bring some new energy into the local museum.

“We got married in September 2009 and we wanted to slow down a little bit,” she said about the process she and husband Wayne Jenski, a 1999 Colony High School grad, went through before making their move. “Palmer made sense because he had some connections and family here. So, we packed everything up.”

Although she became accustomed to the fast pace of suburban life at the University of Arizona in Tempe and in Boston, Jenski grew up in the small town of Sheridan, Wyo. Palmer has a lot of that same hometown feel she remembers from her youth.

That she gets to learn about the area’s history while working to preserve and display it is a unique opportunity, she said.

“I actually don’t have any experience with museums or nonprofits, but I guess that’s part of being in a small town,” she said. “I’m excited to do something and get involved in the community. I feel like I’m a Jill of all trades. I love learning and challenging myself. I want to see what I can bring to this job. It’s just my fourth week, and it’s been good. I’m making lots of connections, meeting lots of people.”

It’s apparent Jenski isn’t letting a little inexperience get in her way of energizing the Palmer museum. Her office walls are lined with neat piles of files and documents she’s going through and filing away. And she’s been pounding the pavement to meet locals.

Prior to the museum’s annual meeting last month, she went to all the downtown businesses to introduce herself and personally invite them to the meeting.

“I was surprised to find how many people who have lived here for awhile didn’t know about the museum,” she said. “We need to get on people’s radar. I’d like to see the museum take a more active role in the community. I’d like to be more involved in reaching out to more organizations and locals.”

To that end, Jenski said she plans to reach out to other Valley museums for advice and is using technology and social media to her advantage. She’s creating a digital newsletter and is using the museum’s Facebook page to keep locals up to date on happenings.

In fact, after her interview for this feature, the museum’s Facebook wall — listed under Palmer Museum of History & Art — featured an announcement about the upcoming story: “Interview with the Frontiersman … front page tomorrow! Check it out!”

“I don’t think the museum is just for tourists,” Jenski said. “It’s for the locals, too. But we need to offer things for the locals, like workshops and other things they can learn that’s new or different from the (same old) stuff they’ve seen here forever.”

She plans to rotate items in the museum’s collection more — there are thousands in storage that have never been on display — and the organization is working toward earning a national accreditation.

For now, Jenski is also focusing on the museum’s next big exhibit in March, a display of hundreds of items from Palmer’s sister city of Saroma, Japan. Jenski is half Japanese on her mother’s side, and was pleasantly surprised to learn her new home has a connection with Saroma.

“We have all these artifacts from our sister city stored away in basements,” she said. “These are all things they’ve gifted to us, and a lot of people haven’t seen these things. We have quite a few items, like over 100 Japanese dolls, so that’s going to be a huge display case. We have a huge shrine that’s maybe 4-feet by 4-feet that’s on big, lacquered poles that people carry. There are some impressive things.”

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.