After seven years at the Hood, School and Family Programs Coordinator Kris Bergquist will become Manager of Family Programs at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. During her time here Kris taught more than three thousand regional school children who participated in the museum's multiple-visit programs, Images and ArtStart. Her dynamic teaching style engaged children in exploring human creativity and helped them develop confidence and skills for interpreting the visual arts. Kris also oversaw the museum's family programs, creating varied and lively opportunities for children and their adult companions to learn about art together in the galleries and express their own creativity in the studio. We wish her well as she continues to do this important work in Houston.
In October Neely McNulty joined the Hood's staff as the Images and ArtStart Instructor for the 2008–9 school year, teaching elementary school students as part of these gallery/studio multiple visit programs. Neely brings many strengths to this position, including undergraduate degrees in art history and studio art and an M.A. in art therapy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
The museum is pleased to announce its new communications team within the Exhibitions Department, headed by Nils Nadeau, Communications and Publications Manager. Following a search last summer, the museum hired Rachel Tardelli Vermeal to be the new Communications and Public Relations Coordinator. Rachel is a graduate of Syracuse University and comes to the museum from the White Mountain School (a 9–12/PG independent school) in Bethlehem, NH, where she served as the Director of Communications. Rachel has also successfully run her own freelance design and communications business since 1999.
Sharon Reed, former Public Relations Coordinator, has now transitioned to her new position of Membership Coordinator, assisting Development Officer Sharon Greene with membership event planning and implementation as well as general administrative duties associated with the museum's Membership Program. Sharon Reed will represent membership on the communications team, which will work with all departments in the museum to articulate the Hood's priorities and strengths to its many audiences.