The Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History recently made a change that seems obvious: It opens on Monday during the hours the Pacific Grove Farmers Market is bustling on its doorstep.
It also shuffled some stuff around to open a space for a gallery. These are two apparent updates in a reorganization sweeping through the building.
They come from a revisit of the strategic plan by the board, staff and volunteers (though, strangely, no direct input from the public), and set to go before city officials for approval.
Much of the implementation is guided by Juan Govea, the museum’s new director of exhibits and education, who formerly taught biology at Salinas High School for 11 years.
“The role of museums are changing,” he says. “We are making some adjustments to be more valuable to the community… building and adding to create a more rich user experience.”
They’ve moved the 20-year-old interactive whale exhibit out, squeezed the gift shop into that space, installed paintings of the Monterey Bay Plein Air Painters Association in the gallery, and moved the Chinese village exhibit to a recessed arm off the lobby.
Govea says they want to expand on engaging stuff that works, like Exhibits Curator Annie C. Holdren’s addition of landscape paintings as backdrops to the taxidermied native animals displays.
“We’re not trying to do a tidal wave,” Govea says.
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