Lisa Hughes has joined the Fort Frances Museum and Cultural Centre coming from the Red Lake Regional Heritage Centre where she was previously curator.
Originally from Stroud, ON, Hughes has been around the world before she ended up in Fort Frances.
“I studied classical studies and I really enjoyed it, it was something that I thought I would pursue,” Hughes said. “I ended up getting an opportunity to go to Japan and I taught English. So I was there for three years and I had only intended on being there for a year and then going back to school. So that kind of changed my life plans.”
After her time in Japan, she did go back to school but not to pursue classical studies as she thought she might but instead turned in the museum direction.
“I went back to school for museum studies, I did my degree at Fleming (College, in Toronto) for museum management and curatorship,” she said. “After that I did contract work for nine years in various community museums. I learned a lot and then when the opportunity came up for Red Lake for a full-time curator position I jumped on it and spent an amazing time in Red Lake.”
Hughes says over her time in Red Lake she really got to be a part of the community.
“It was nine and a half years,” she said. “I really got to know the community. It is very different from growing up in a central Ontario small town community. But it was a community that really pulled together when you needed it.”
Hughes comes to the Fort Frances Museum and Cultural Centre as it’s on the cusp of a new chapter with a new strategic plan in development.
“It’s been a lot to take in, I’ve really come at a time where so much is happening that I have not had much time to really look at the collection,” she said. “”We’ve had strategic planning meetings, we’re working on a walking tour, there’s all these things that have pulled me in that have to be dealt with right away. So I’m really looking forward to having an opportunity to look at the museum and really discovering what there is. I have worked with one of the volunteers and it sounds like it’s an amazing collection.”
While initially interested in the education aspect of museums, Hughes says in school she got interested in the collections side.
“I actually was planning on going into educational programming for museums before I actually discovered collections, donations and dealing with donors and found that is actually where my interests more lie,” she said.
As she has time to settle in Hughes says she is hoping to be able to work with the community to build the museum up.
“I find working with the community it’s more meaningful,” she said. “Especially in the offseason, getting people to come in and see the amazing things that the community has done in the past or the amazing artists, they get so much more out of it than if it’s just a traveling exhibit.”
