Story provided by the Sheerar Museum of Stillwater History
As always the Sheerar Museum of Stillwater History is in constant motion, and this summer is no different. The Sheerar Museum of Stillwater History is excited to welcomes a new Director, Amy Loch.
Amy comes to the Sheerar Museum from the Logan County Historical Society in Guthrie, where she served as Director. During her time with the Logan County Historical Society, Amy was integral in leading the organization into a new phase in its history. She produced a self-guided, web-based WPA Tour series, which received the Mountain Plains Museum Association 2017 award for Leadership and Outreach in the field for small museums. She built a partnership with the Frontier Country Museum in Crescent for children’s programming, which has served over 175 youths this summer. She also worked with the Friends of Excelsior Library to try to save one of the last remaining purpose built African American Libraries in the country, including writing the successful nomination to list the Excelsior Library on the National Register of Historic Places, which resulted in the building being listed on the 2017 Oklahoma’s Most Endangered Places list.
Prior to coming to Oklahoma, Amy was the Curator at the Old Cowtown Museum in Wichita, Kansas. During her time at Cowtown, she created a number of new museum exhibits and she created a partnership with Wichita State University to build a successful internship program. She also served as Interim Director and Volunteer Coordinator helping her develop an even broader range of leadership skills. Prior to moving to Kansas, Amy served as registrar at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in Maryland. She holds a MA in Public History from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and an undergraduate degree in History with a minor in Business.
Amy first met her husband, Dr. Mark Janzen, as a fellow museum colleague at a neighboring museum in Wichita. Five years ago, Mark became the Director of the Museum Studies Program at the University of Central Oklahoma and the couple moved to Guthrie. Since moving to Oklahoma, Amy has involved herself in her new community through chairing the Territorial Christmas Celebration in Guthrie in 2013 and serving on the Guthrie Historic Preservation Commission as well as a number of local museum boards.
Amy is excited to be taking over the reins as Director of the Sheerar Museum and is working on a number of new projects. One of Amy’s goals in her new position is to find new ways to connect to the community through increased diversification of exhibit topics and programming. For fall she is working on a new exhibit entitled “How Dry Was It? Prohibition is Stillwater” which will tell the controversial story of views on alcohol in Stillwater from the Territorial Period to today. Stay tuned for exhibit opening dates and related programming. For more information visit www.sheerarmuseum.org
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