Moses Lake Museum names new director

MOSES LAKE - Freya Hart never heard of Moses Lake before she heard about the open manager position at the Moses Lake Museum and Art Center.

Then she couldn't not hear about the city.

"All of a sudden, there were all these different connections; the world all of a sudden centered on Moses Lake," she said. "My landlady's husband grew up here. He was from a family of onion farmers. Then our education director, her best friend ended up living in Moses Lake the majority of her life. It seemed like everywhere I went, there was someone who had some kind of connection to Moses Lake."

Perhaps it was a sign, for Hart started as manager of the center Tuesday.

Originally from California, Hart moved with her dog, Loki, from Bayside, N.Y., where she had worked as curator for the Bayside Historical Society for five years, to take the position in Moses Lake.

"Mainly it was a relocation choice," Hart explained. "I wanted to come back to the West Coast."

Hart found the Moses Lake facilities appealing and the mission "almost eerily well-fit" for her past experiences.

"I really am interested in focusing a little bit more on the cultural history side of the mission, but I also do think it's very important to keep up the quality of the programs Terry (Mulkey, former director) enacted here as far as visual arts are concerned," she said.

City of Moses Lake Recreation Superintendent Mark Hickok said there were more than 30 applications, with 14 applicants being interviewed.

"Freya was just a perfect fit," he said. "By the time we had seen everybody, we just kept coming back to Freya. I'm very glad she accepted, decided to move her entire life across the country and come back over here to little old Moses Lake to be our director here."

Hickok pointed to Hart's museum experiences, with both historical and art exhibits, as the reasons she fits well.

"We are a museum and art center," Hickok said. "We needed to find someone who could bridge that gap and see both perspectives. There aren't a lot of people out there who do both history and art. A lot of the people were either really heavy on the art side, and didn't delve too much into the history side, or they were really on the history side and they just didn't really give art much of a second thought."

The manager oversees day-to-day operations of the center, fund-raising shows and functions and brings in new exhibits, Hickok explained. Hart will also be involved in planning for the museum's new facility, which is currently in the stage of negotiating with an architect before designing.

Hart's been working in museums since she was an undergraduate in Linfield, Ore., she said.

"As soon as I had my first taste of working in a museum, I haven't looked back since then," she said. "It's really been the only focus for me."

People will have an opportunity to meet Hart during the Sculpture Without Walls exhibit Sept. 8, with a reception from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the museum, located at 228 W. Third Ave.