This fall, Carrie Holland took over as interim director and CEO of Pittsfield, Massachusetts living history museum Hancock Shaker Village. A city native and Village board member since 2020, much of Holland’s professional life has been in the private sector — including stints with investment firm Mill Town Capital and defense contractor General Dynamics Mission Systems. After stepping into the interim role in August, Holland has since been elevated to the Village’s permanent director and CEO. She replaces Nathaniel Silver, who spent less than a year as the Village’s leader. Holland spoke with WAMC.
HOLLAD: Our focus of the board is primarily strategic and fiduciary, financial sustainability of the organization. So, we've been thinking about strategy for the last couple of years. We're about to dust off our strategic plan and sort of re-snap the five-year vision there. I think there's been so much interesting, so many interesting programming elements that have been tried in the last, I'd say, seven to eight years. So, now we're at the point of sort of realizing some of the successes there and taking a snapshot of what is relevant and current trends. What do people, what are people really resonating? What are the themes that are really resonating with audiences? So, we have a lot of that insight now and I think pulling that forward into the years ahead will be very exciting. I love that creative strategic process. Got really fun, strong themes in our farming program and food to table, farm to table, the food program, regenerative farming, we have an incredible CSA, and that's really resonating with people right now. So, I think a lot more programming in that direction. The design, Shaker design is really having a very cool moment with color, fashion, interior design, architecture to an extent. So, pulling on some of those threads will be really exciting. And then we have our core, our core basis is so varied as well, because the Shakers really practiced an intentional, encompassing life. So, there's so many interesting components, social conversations, some of the political conversations, a level of equality, engineering, how they worked in the environment, sustainability, there's so many cool threads to pull on. So, our team here is really looking forward to an exciting slate of things for next year, and then looking out over the five years of, which areas are we really going to double down on?
WAMC: There's been sort of this revolving door of leaders over the last few years. Are you committing at this point to really try to offer some continuity in the role as the institution continues to seek out leadership?
Yeah, exactly. So, to me, I'm like- This is a very resilient organization. It's been- Mother Ann [Lee] came and started Shakerism 250 years ago. There's been a presence here at this site in Hancock for over 250 years. So, there's some resiliency here. Leadership is really critical, but I also feel like the strength of an organization is its ability to continue moving and to have strong leaders come and go. But for right now, we've got so many moving parts, it felt really good to have that continuity and not have the disruption of bringing someone completely new to the Village, maybe even completely new to the Berkshires. And that runway to get them up to speed would probably take several months. So, we've got so many critical things coming up in the next year, in the next two years, in the next three years. So, to have the continuity and a familiar face helping to guide that, I think, will be great. It will just be a much more efficient couple of years. And at some point, the leadership needs may not be who I am. And that is totally okay, I think that's a sign, again, of a healthy, resilient organization. And, but for the near term, based on this sort of strange, eclectic background that I have, I'm really well suited for now. And I think over time, I won't, I will not be here forever. But over time, it will become clear that, okay, this is the next, this is the right time to transition, let's bring the next leader in. But, you know, we're not looking at a date. We're not looking at that right now. But, and so for now, continuity feels really good. The team here is excellent, and we've just got a lot of work to do. So, we want to do that without the distraction of a whole new person coming in.
There's been a lot of conversation in the Berkshires about workers at nonprofit cultural institutions. There's been this broad study that's taken place, there's been union organizing at Mass MoCA. From your perspective, what are you hearing from workers in the nonprofit sector? And what are you sort of saying your vision of how you want to work with that community is going to be moving into this new role?
Yeah, I think we're at a really tricky point. I think this conversation- I've had some interesting insight into this from being a community partner over the last five years, serving on four nonprofit boards in a variety of functions- Hancock Shaker Village, Barrington Stage Company, Berkshire Natural Resources Council, and Boston Symphony Orchestra. So, there's, this is a regional conversation. It's a national conversation. But I think it's critically important, and everyone's got to get it right, because these organizations do not function without really good, committed people. So, the balance, of course, is always the financial reality of running nonprofits in the Berkshires and how you want to give everybody the best experience that you can possibly give. So, I think finding that balance- We've been doing a lot of research on the sort of level setting, compensation expectations of museums across the board. There's been a lot of really great studies that have come out. Also, cost of living calculators that have been very interesting. There's just a lot of research and data out there. And here at the Village we want to do everything that we can to help support the people here doing the hard work and creating the best possible work life that we can, that we can afford. And that might be getting a little creative and working with people on their schedules and on their time. But it's a really important component, because truly, without the commitment of people here- I see it every day, we have very committed volunteers, we have very committed seasonal employees, we have first jobs, last jobs, everything in between. And without everybody- Very cliche, but it really takes a village. And so, without everybody coming and being committed to the mission here, it just won't happen. So, it's a really critical conversation, and I give a ton of credit for to a lot of leaders and people in the arts and culture community for really demanding some conversations about it.
