Meet Karen our Ruby C. Strickland Curator of Education

Hi, everyone! My name is Karen Malone and I am the curator of education at the Evansville Museum of Arts, History & Science. One of my colleagues suggested that we each write a blog post to introduce ourselves to the community. So, here is mine! 

Let’s get started. Karen Malone was born four thousand years ago on the planet Mars. Just kidding; that’s what I tell the kiddos when they ask me how old I am. If I tell them the truth (early thirties), they respond by telling me that I’m ancient, which is not usually a boost to my self-esteem.  

While I haven’t lived on Mars (yet), I have lived all around the country. My family moved a lot for my father’s job, and I have lived in Ohio, Maryland, Upstate New York, Colorado and now Indiana. Every once in a while, my old New York accent will slip out.  

 I went to college in Upstate New York at SUNY Binghamton (Go Bearcats!) where I majored in geology. I absolutely loved this major, not just because rocks are super cool, but because it gave me a strong foundation in biology, chemistry, physics and math. I also took classes in history, anthropology and art history. I didn’t know it at the time, but having a knowledge base in many different areas would be extremely helpful in my current job as a museum educator.  

 At college, I was the secretary of the Pirate Club (my pirate name was Cutthroat Karen). What does a Pirate Club do exactly, you ask?  Well, we’d often raid the next-door Scrabble Club and steal all their vowels. We also put on events to raise awareness about scurvy and hand out oranges to students on campus. Mostly, we received funny looks from people. I still have my pirate hat.  

One of my favorite things at college was the LARP Club. LARP stands for Live Action Role-Playing, and it’s like acting out Dungeons & Dragons. It’s possibly one of the geekiest things you can do. I loved it, and it was the first opportunity I had to speak in front of an audience, something I do all the time now during tours at the Museum. I also was able to take on a leadership role by captaining my own space ship. My whole crew “died” but, hey, that happens sometimes.  

It was my senior year of college when I came to the realization that while I still loved rocks, I wasn’t too fond of their natural habit, specifically the lack of air conditioning. So, I started thinking about ways I can enjoy rocks indoors. That made me think of museums. I decided to go to graduate school.  

 I moved to Boulder, Colorado which had 1) a fantastic graduate program in museum studies, and 2) lots of rocks. In fact, while I was going to school, I also was able to work in a natural history museum which had real dinosaur fossils! It was awesome.  

At graduate school, I specialized in informal education, which is learning that occurs outside of a typical classroom. I’m interested in all aspects of education: what motivates people to learn, what barriers people face, how families learn together, the best ways to communicate concepts and information, etc.  

 I didn’t know it at the time, but everything I’ve mentioned, from the wide knowledge in science, history, art and anthropology, to my public speaking skills, to my love of embracing the very geeky and slightly strange, ended up being very useful in my role as curator of education.  

 I absolutely love my job at the Evansville Museum. The Evansville Museum, and the Evansville community as a whole, is something very special. I am so happy to be a part of this city.