Entering a New Era

Throughout KATE BAILLON’s twenty-plus-year career, she’s worn many hats. She’s worked in various museums in different capacities and has even spent time as a preschool teacher and adjunct professor.

Most recently, Baillon moved into the director role at the Cape Fear Museum of History and Science, having served as the manager of collections and exhibits in 2017 and interim director in May prior to starting full time in the head spot October 17.

Before coming to the States, Baillon was born and raised in the United Kingdom and relocated to North Carolina after accepting a role at Joie Lassiter Gallery as its gallery manager and art consultant in the early 2000s. She later moved on to a role at Charlotte’s Levine Museum of the New South’s vice president of exhibitions, and about ten years later, moved to Wilmington for her first role at the Cape Fear Museum.

“What really appealed to me here was that it was both a science and history museum,” Baillon says.

“That’s intriguing, thinking of different ways that can be applied to reach people and help them learn in different ways,” she says. “It was a really interesting area for me to move into, combining history and science. That’s what drew me here.”

Now that Baillon is officially the director, a major initiative for the museum will be moving to Project Grace in downtown Wilmington. The mixed-use project will fill the county-owned block bordered by Chestnut, Grace, Second, and North Third streets.

Project Grace, according to New Hanover County officials, “will transform the county’s downtown Public Library, a parking deck, and several underutilized surface parking lots into a purpose-built library adjacent to a modern Cape Fear Museum. The new facility will anchor cultural resources in downtown Wilmington, meet the specific and unique needs of both the library and museum, create new synergy in services, and enhance the visitor’s experience.”

The museum’s current building on Market Street has about 13,000 square feet of exhibition space, which is primarily a history exhibit. It also has two small science galleries and a changing gallery. The changing gallery is used to host traveling exhibitions from other locations and to house temporary exhibitions that are developed in-house that cover different topics, Baillon says.

With Project Grace in the picture, it will allow the museum to expand the types of exhibitions it’ll have.

“We’ll be able to offer a broader range of both history and science exhibits,” Baillon says. “We’ll be looking at having a 3,000-square-foot, hands-on gallery that teaches about scientific principles; a 1,300-square-foot children’s exhibit that teaches about the local area for our youngest visitors; a 9,000-square-foot history and science exhibit that combines the history and science of our local region, weaving together stories of people and place; (and) an outdoor gallery teaching about the local ecology — all this together with a 5,000-square-foot changing gallery and a sixty-seat immersive theater and planetarium. I’m really excited about the possibilities with Project Grace, with co-locating with the library. That’s going to mean that we’ll be able to offer so much more when we’re with the library, like a hub for learning in a way.”

As Baillon transitions into her new role, she shares what one skill she needs to have as the museum steps into a new era: flexibility.

“I think it’s important that we’re flexible and interested in engaging,” she says. “Engagement is a huge piece of what we need to look at, how we can connect with the community and create a welcoming and engaging location.

“There’s all kinds of different ways,” Baillon says, “that museums can really engage the community and ignite that little spark of curiosity.”

Correction: This version has been updated to the correct square footage of exhibition space at the museum’s current location.

To view more of Logan Burke’s work, go to loganburkephoto.com. 

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