Until this year, the Haggerty Museum of Art at Marquette University had only had two directors in its 30-plus year history.
After Wally Mason left the museum to take a similar job in Nebraska, the university hired Susan Longhenry. She was director of the Harwood Museum of Art in Taos, New Mexico.
With the Marquette museum serving both an academic and general audience, Longhenry looks towards its future. "Our role is to use the collections and exhibitions there to engage the faculty and the students in learning and the kind of learning that happens in museums," she says. "Our whole point is to enrich the learning happening at Marquette University through object-based learning."
She says the new job represents a trip back to her earliest childhood home. "It was a perfect storm of professional interest and family interest," Longhenry says of her return, "wanting to be in a place that seemed like a perfect place for my family and I."