Former leaders look back, look ahead

AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM OF IOWA: 55 12th Ave. SE

Name: Tom Moore, 67, of Hiawatha, retired May 31Tenure: A founder of the museum in 1993; began as executive director in 2003 after working 30 years in accounting at Quaker OatsRetirement Plans: He and his wife, Lillie, will stay here, where their two children and four grandchildren also live. Moore will tackle some home projects and do some presentations, archiving and oral histories for the museum, as well as volunteer work with the Gideons, his church and the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation board.

Importance: “This is a part of Iowa's history that's not getting represented, not getting covered,” he said. “It's not due to anyone's fault; it's dying out with older people. There's a lot of development in the early part of Iowa's history that is void of any African-American presence, especially when you have Buffalo Soldiers and all sorts of military presence, as well as early settlers that came west as free people that worked in the lead mines. None of that is included in Iowa's history. It's important for everybody, but especially for African-Americans, especially the youth, to realize Iowa is their state, as well. Their ancestors had a part in helping to settle and develop the state, and that's not always indicated to them. It's a sense of belonging, a sense of pride, and hopefully, it will nurture an involvement in what goes on in the state today.”

Challenges: “None of us were museum people,” Moore said. “We did not fit what most thought would be founders of a museum. None us were historians, none of us had museum backgrounds. None of us were researchers. It started out as a group of people wanting to do something for the young people of our church (Mount Zion Baptist). We were the ones that got it started, so we were the ones that handled its evolution, transitioning into what it became."Just getting people to realize that we were serious, that we were credible -- that was the first huge hurdle. We believed in ourselves only because we didn't realize what we were getting ourselves into. Ignorance is bliss. … That's the joy now of actually being asked for our opinions, being asked for help, being asked by a number of museums around the country for start-up ideas. It's just been amazing the amount of mentoring we've been able to do since the early start.”

New Leader: Michael Kates of Des Moines. Over the past eight years, Kates has held positions of increasing responsibility at the Fort Des Moines Museum and Education Center in Des Moines, serving as executive director since 2011. A Waterloo native, he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in history, with an emphasis in public history, at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls.

CEDAR RAPIDS MUSEUM OF ART: 410 Third Ave. SE

Name: Terry Pitts, 63, of Cedar Rapids, retires today (6/30/2013)Tenure: 13 years; came in 2000 after 25 years at the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona

Accomplishments:“What we've really tried to do – if there was one focus overall for my term here -- it has been to make the museum feel like part of the community,” he said. “To give the community a real sense of ownership and investment in what we do here at the art museum and a sense that it's important to them, important to their children, important to the future and important to the city's whole ecosystem.”

Highlights:2005: “Grant Wood at 5 Turner Alley” exhibition, featuring “American Gothic”; 2003 to 2005: “Villa to Grave: Art in Roman Life”; 2008 to 2009: “The Year of the River: Flood Photography from The Gazette”; 2002: receiving via donation and renovating Wood's studio at 5 Turner Alley, which opened in 2004. That “really opened up the life of Grant Wood to the average person,” Pitts said. “That's indicative of what we're trying to do here – not just put art on the wall, but put art on the wall as a window into other things: into people's lives, into history, into contemporary events. Art should give you options into new ways of thinking, and when you own something like the Grant Wood Studio, you can see where these things were created, stand on the spot where the easel was for ‘American Gothic' and try to put yourself in 1930 and in Grant Wood's head. It's a pretty remarkable opportunity.”Retirement Plans: Stay in Cedar Rapids with his wife, Kathy Hall; sleep a little later, pursue interests in cooking, reading, art history, writing and keep exploring. “I bought a new camera, so I'm ready for all sorts of new possibilities.”

New Leader: Curator Sean Ulmer of Cedar Rapids. Ulmer has been named interim executive director, while the board searches to fill the position vacated today (6/30/13) by Terry Pitts. Ulmer came to the museum in 2005.

INDIAN CREEK NATURE CENTER: 6665 Otis Rd. SE

Name: Rich Patterson, 63, of Cedar Rapids; moved from executive director of operations to executive director of development, May 28Tenure: 35 years, coming from a nature center in Kansas

Accomplishments: The Nature Center, founded in 1973, is “just a different world, physically,” he said. “When I came here, the land base was small, we didn't own it, we leased it from the city. It was an old, overgrown farm with Eurasian vegetation. We quickly began ecological restoration to restore it back to native, with the thought that we're bringing children out there and we want them to experience Iowa as a Native American child might have -- and you can't do that with European vegetation. That has been a long-term, never-ending but successful effort. We restored prairies, oaks, savannahs and wetlands so it's much more true to what it would have been like 300 years ago.” The organization has more than doubled its land base to 210 acres. “We've been cutting-edge with ecological restoration. That wasn't even happening when I came here. The words hadn't been coined, and now it's a scientific discipline.”

Retirement Plans: He and his wife, Marion, will stay here for now. “We moved up here for three years, then the (two) kids were born,” he said. “We've been trying to leave for 35 years. We haven't ruled out a move in the future.”

New Leader: John Myers of Marion. Myers, executive director of operations, was previously senior district executive for the Hawkeye Area Council, Boy Scouts of America, and was co-founder and director of operations for Independent Child Advocate Services. He completed his Eagle Scout Project at the Nature Center 18 years ago.