Neville Museum’s director vacancy attracts city council’s attention

GREEN BAY – City-county relations were tested at the May 5 Green Bay Common Council meeting when community leaders talked up a proposed resolution urging Brown County to prioritize its hiring of a new Neville Public Museum executive director, but politics intervened.

Like the alders who signed on to the Neville Museum resolution, Brown County supervisor Patrick Evans said he would like to have a museum executive director in place sooner rather than later, but it’s not up to the county board. It’s up to County Executive Troy Streckenbach, Evans said.

Brown County owns the museum, and County Executive Troy Streckenbach is tasked with hiring a new director, Evans said.

“Brown County has had some high-level talks with several community partners as the search for the Neville Public Museum’s next executive director continues,” Streckenbach said in response to a request for comment.

“We’re doing proper due diligence. Our goal is to determine if there’s a partnership that can take place that would enhance the Neville as a tourist destination, creating a cultural campus downtown, thus raising the level of its long-term fiscal stability,” Streckenbach said.

“If we’re going to do this, we have to do it right,” Evans said.

Evans’ public comments followed an email he sent to city alders and Mayor Eric Genrich calling the resolution “inappropriate.”

“To be absolutely direct, the County Board (and County Executive) are working on this issue and do not appreciate being told how to do our job(s),” Evans’ email said.

Evans also reminded the alders of the solid working relationship the county has had with the city.

“At a time when I am working on a resolution to share a portion of the half-percent sales tax with municipalities and obtain additional funding for Shawano Avenue, this resolution could potentially kill any support from those non-Green Bay Supervisors (along with some Green Bay Supervisors),” his email said.

Prior to the council meeting, Evans was on the phone all weekend with alders and others discussing the proposed resolution, he said.

“I received or made 79 phone calls,” he told a reporter.

From the discussions, Evans was persuaded that “there was no ill will intended (from the resolution) and they would table it,” he said.
“At the end of the day, it shows you it is good government. The two bodies were able to come together and work out a problem. It shows a spirit of cooperation,” Evans said.

News of the resolution spurred other public speakers, including Green Bay resident Mary Pappas, to voice their support.

“There’s a lot urgency in addressing the leadership vacuum that exists at the museum right now,” Pappas said. “It is wise to be thinking about having a director who helps lead a discovery of a new vision.”

Pappas said it was critical to have a transparent process that includes community input.

“The museum needs our collective attention, and it deserves it. There’s a need for a vision,” she said.

Lisa Rose Lamson, an associate teaching professor of public history at UW-Green Bay, also supported more public input.

In response to an alder’s question, Lamson explained why it’s significant to have a museum governed by the public.

“If the community wants to be in charge of the stories we tell about ourselves to the world, then that is something that needs deep community input,” she said.

David Coury, a professor of humanistic studies at UW-Green Bay and director of the Green Bay Film Society, which holds a free international film series at the Neville Museum, spoke about the museum’s impact on the local economy. It draws people to downtown Green Bay who also dine at local restaurants, he said.
“It’s always been my hope the Neville could serve as the cultural and intellectual heart of the area by bringing people into the downtown,” he said.

The Tarlton Theatre Owner Tarl Knight said he urged the county board last year to fill the open director position and continue to fund historic preservation, arts and culture at the Neville through an annual $1 million levy.

“Since then, the Neville and its staff, its funding and its creative autonomy to continue telling the stories of people in Brown County have continued to be under fire in public and private conversations,” Knight said.

Evans acknowledged people are talking about the museum. “There’s a bunch of rumors going on. The Neville isn’t moving from downtown. The Neville isn’t going to be privatized. We are going to work on getting an executive director,” he said.

He addressed speculation about a merger of the Neville Museum with the Green Bay Children’s Museum. In his opinion, it wouldn’t be a good fit.

“I don’t want a lot of screaming kids running around. A museum is like a library. You study, you learn, you’re reading five to ten paragraphs about what the exhibit is really about,” Evans said. “The children’s museum is not a museum in my eyes.”

A simplified resolution about the Neville Museum, led by Common Council President Alyssa Proffitt, had received unanimous support at the April 22 Public Arts Commission meeting, where commission members talked informally about how museum staffers reportedly were disconcerted about the leadership void.

Proffitt said the Neville Museum historically was a joint venture between the city and the county. “The resolution is intended to show solidarity to staff and what the Neville means to the community,” she said then. Public Arts Commission members also discussed whether the Neville should put the Green Bay Children’s Museum under its roof, with most opposing the idea.

Despite support for the resolution, it failed to gain traction at the Common Council meeting and was tabled.

After the meeting, Evans, who described himself as the messenger relaying information from the county board to the common council, said he thought the council meeting was “great.”