Bailey Arnholz

Background

About Bailey Arnholz

I have worked in the arts, culture and heritage industries since I began my career. Two years as the Director of Education at the Leighton Art Centre introduced me to the positive impacts that research, history, art, and nature can have on diverse communities including school children, adults with disabilities, teachers, and the many groups of other visitors. It gave me skills in program development, team building and management, arts administration, and handling the challenges of working in a non-profit heritage setting. While I would never call working in arts and culture easy, I enjoy working with the communities it brings together and puzzling through the array of unique challenges! My training in research and writing that came from my MA has set me up to love the behind-the-scenes research, writing, and collections management portion of museum and heritage work as much as I enjoy working with the communities that are drawn to these institutions. My passion is using these skills to engage a wider range of audiences than traditionally drawn to museum and heritage sites. I love to help in preserving and telling community stories from a range of perspectives to highlight new voices in our communities. While at the Leighton Art Centre I was able to develop a new segment to some of our school programs that allowed students to handle artifacts from our museum as well as the natural landscape. This became the perfect intersection to bring our museum and education programs closer together. I am a big believer in learning and reading! I love to tell and read stories, acquire new skills at every opportunity, and share what I learn with others either by teaching or implementing new knowledge. I have found that communities frequently share two major things: their natural setting, and their local history! Hiking frequently allows me to bring together the natural landscape with local stories and artifacts. When I’m not thinking about local history and nature I can usually be found knitting, rock climbing, or experimenting in the kitchen!