Museum of Idaho names new executive director – East Idaho News

IDAHO FALLS — The Museum of Idaho is getting some new management.

Jeff Carr, the museum’s present senior director of Exterior Affairs, was named govt director after an in depth nationwide search. Carr will take over the place when present Government Director Karen Baker retires in January.

Carr was chosen from a pool that originally included over 270 candidates. The museum’s choice committee had their palms full discovering Baker’s successor.

“It was a troublesome, powerful choice,” musuem board chair Joe Giebel mentioned in a press launch. “That is actually a testomony to this establishment – after all the effort we went by way of throughout this intense choice course of in a nationwide search, the 2 finest candidates had been proper right here from the museum.”

Carr mentioned his new place comes with many new challenges and obligations.

“I’ve received a three-page-long job description I might learn off to you,” Carr mentioned. “The job entails a variety of issues. I would be the major face and consultant of the museum. I shall be overseeing our strategic planning and our price range to verify the museum is being accountable and sustainable and persevering with to develop in good methods.”

One other of Carr’s obligations shall be to make sure the museum’s group has every thing they should maintain advancing the mission to deliver the world to Idaho and Idaho to the world.

“We have already got such a wonderful, proficient group who do a variety of nice issues within the museum and the group,” he mentioned. “I simply need to make sure that they’ve every thing they want.”

Carr credited Baker for enjoying an necessary function in getting ready him for his new duties.

“Karen has been actually good about serving to me study the ins and outs of the job,” he mentioned. “There are definitely some issues that I can deliver to the desk that I do know fairly effectively, however there are some issues that I don’t. So she’s been very useful in serving to information and educate me in issues I’m going to want to arrange for.”

Carr additionally mentioned he’s grateful to have an incredible group of coworkers to lean on and assist him fulfill his duties.

“I’ve received the good thing about a variety of expertise on the group,” he mentioned. “There’s lots of people round right here that actually know what they’re doing.”

With the assistance of his group, Carr hopes to proceed to make the museum a supply of service, training and enjoyable for the Idaho Falls group.

“The museum already does a variety of actually nice issues, and I don’t image coming in and upending something,” he mentioned. “I believe Karen has put us in a extremely good place to have the ability to develop and do extra. One factor I need to work on is ensuring the museum is sustainable and might adapt to the altering world and the altering group round us.”

“We all know, particularly after COVID, that getting individuals out of their homes just isn’t all the time simple,” he added. “An increasing number of individuals are partaking with studying, content material, science and historical past from residence. So we have to make it possible for we as a museum could be this nexus of tradition for the group even when individuals are not inside our 4 partitions.”

The highway forward presents many challenges for the Museum of Idaho, however Carr says he’s able to deal with them.

“I’m humbled and excited,” he mentioned. “It’s definitely daunting, and this shall be a brand new expertise for me, definitely. However Karen has performed job of getting ready us, getting ready me over the previous few years, and now we have an exquisite group, so it’s not like I’m going to be doing this factor alone.”