Pam McLaughlin a former curator of education and public programs at the Everson
By Jason Emerson
Editor
Stone Quarry Hill Art Park has a new executive director. Pam McLaughlin took charge of the organization in mid-September, bringing with her more than 20 years of art and museum experience.
“I feel art is alive when someone engages with it,” McLaughlin said, and the fact that the Art Park is “art combined with people” is what drew her to the position. “I was looking for a job and I couldn’t even believe this was open … so I jumped on it. It’s been great ever since.”
McLaughlin succeeds Kelli Johnson, who was the interim park director since November 2017. Johnson replaced former Executive Director Emily Zaengle, who headed the Art Park from January 2015 until her departure last year.
McLaughlin grew up in Ohio and has a PhD in art education and in women’s studies from Syracuse University. She worked as the curator of education and public programs at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse from 1996 to 2014. After living in San Francisco for four years, she and her husband returned to Central New York in 2018.
“The sky’s the limit here [at the Art Park]; everyone’s on board,” she said. “My predecessors all have done great things that I can take and go forward with.”
McLaughlin said her plans and goals for the future include improving outreach, increasing membership, enhancing members’ sense of ownership of the park and increasing the park’s partnerships with local and regional schools.
“My goal is to create a strong, curriculum-related program with different disciplines,” she said. “I would like to work with teachers to integrate park tours into the curriculum — art, history, science, literature. There’s no reason why schools and the Art Park are not partners in the collaborative sense.”
McLaughlin said changes coming to the art park moving forward include more public art being installed in the park, increased restoration work on the Dorothy Riester House as well as more public and school tours of the house and the creation of a docent corps who will give the tours.
