New general manager appointed for Stratford Perth Museum

Anyone familiar with the theater scene in Perth and Huron counties will likely recognize the Stratford Perth Museum’s new general manager.

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The museum’s board of directors announced this week it has appointed Kelly McIntosh to replace outgoing general manager John Kastner when he retires from his position at the end of this month. McIntosh has 30 years of experience in arts and heritage administration, including a four-year stint at the Stratford Perth Museum as administrative and membership co-ordinator. She has also worked in theater as both a performer and playwright, having penned and produced hit local plays including Kroehler Girls and Ladies of the CNR.

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“It was the feeling I had when (the museum) launched its Kroehler manufacturing (exhibit) here at the end of July,” said McIntosh, explaining what led her to apply for the general manager position. “I kind of came home to the museum with (former education and programs manager) Peg Dunnem to finish off and launch a project I had done when I was last here two-and-half years ago.

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“It was just amazing to return to the museum and really be welcomed by so many enthusiastic members of the museum community, volunteers, board members and the actual community itself. … It was a real feeling of coming home and a powerful feeling in the room. I just suddenly thought, ‘This is what I do.’ I found my way through theater to a real love of illuminating diverse stories of history and nowhere else can I do that at the level I can here. I’m also really excited about the possibility of telling stories. not necessarily in a theatrical production but in other ways through digital media, podcasts or even some ways to animate exhibits that really has a powerful, emotional transformational energy.”

McIntosh says her experience as both a theatrical storyteller and as an arts administrator at theater companies like the Blyth Festival, as well as her time working for Kastner at the museum, has given her a balance of skills that makes her a good fit for the general manager position and an understanding of what effective and forward-thinking leadership looks like at the museum.

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Museum board chair David Stones said that experience, coupled with her commitment to telling historical stories in a way that connects to people today, is what put her over the top when the board was considering candidates.

“There’s two halves to the equation and, for the board, it’s a 60-40 split,” Stones said. “I think 60 per cent of the job is business acumen. It’s the experience with donors. It’s the experience with great writing. It’s the experience with membership stewardship – putting the bum in the seat and raising money. Kelly’s got quite a track record of that. …The other 40 per cent is this fabulous adjunct that Kelly has to those business skills that is the theater side of it. She has the ability to tell a story in an interesting way. We love the idea of ​​breaking into new technologies – theater, video, podcast, those kinds of things.

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“All museums today are looking at interactive ways to tell stories, to engage the public, and we’re no different. … We’re competing against the internet, so the more interesting and engaging we make the story, the better we’re going to do selling it in the marketplace. I think Kelly’s going to be bringing that to our business as well.”

While McIntosh doesn’t begin in her new role until Nov. 20, she’s already excited to begin connecting and reconnecting with museum members and the wider community, specifically the rural and agricultural communities of Perth County, to get a better sense of how they want to see the museum grow and evolve.

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