NICOLE REYNOLDS Executive Director Har-Ber Village Museum Grove, OK https://har-bervillage.com/ What is the most important issue/challenge you are dealing with in your industry? Getting funding post-COVID. There was a huge shift in charity work and funding when the pandemic hit. What happens is that you have such a shift that most funders give to a person and not necessarily to an organization. I think when those relationships break apart, people forget about the charities they funded before. When you hear museums, you assume art. However, people don't realize that there are other types of museums and cultural institutions. How do you feel your industry has changed/evolved? What I love about this industry is that there are so many moving parts, and relevance will always change. We tend to put our thinking caps on. In most museums in the industry, we do a lot with very little. It's wonderful to see the dynamic of that and how people use so many different types of ingenuity to figure out what we can do, where we can be effective, and when we're bringing it to our audience, what we can give them. Before, you didn’t have a lot to compete with, but nowadays, you're competing with a three-minute video. What excites you the most about your industry? Watching young people visit and seeing how excited they are. It affects the mindset of saying, “We don't necessarily have to sit and watch television. We can read or watch TV and crochet.” There’s just so much to do. We even have blacksmiths come once a week and have a woodworking club. There’s something for everyone. 16 Seventh Edition Marquis Who’s Who INSIGHT DR. MICHAEL V. NAMORATO JR. Professor Emeritus University of Mississippi Oxford, MS http://www.drmichaelvnamaratojr.com/ What are two key behaviors/personality traits that allow you to be effective in your role? I think one behavior I have is that I listen. The other behavior I have is that I pursue a project until it's done; no matter how many obstacles there are, I’ll keep pursuing it until it’s done. How do you feel your industry has changed/evolved? What the teachers are doing has changed a lot. Also, I don't think the students are as committed as they used to be. When I first started teaching, students used to come to class with a shirt and a tie, and the girls were all dressed up. They were very serious about everything. For example, they said they wanted a job or wanted to get married. However, now there’s this attitude that the students expect everything to happen to them and that they’re entitled to it. But they're not – they have to work hard for it, and I don't think they want to. What innovations or technologies do you feel will shape the future of your industry? It’s everything we have now, such as computers. I think computers and artificial intelligence are just the beginning.
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