Visitors to the Jefferson County Museum of Art and History can expect to see a lot more of its considerable collection thanks to changes to the way it presents exhibits.

The Port Townsend museum drew more than 275 attendees to its “Free First Saturday” reopening event on April 5, according to Executive Director Tara McCauley.

The Jefferson County Historical Society reopened its museum on April 3, but offered free admission and extended hours on April 5 to coincide with the community’s First Saturday Art Walk, with next-door sponsor Dogs-A-Foot serving hot dogs throughout the day.

McCauley and Ellie DiPietro, director of research and collections for the museum, spoke to The Leader about the building’s construction of new ADA-compliant ramps, heightened doorways and renovated gallery walls, to provide “a more welcoming and inclusive space” for all visitors.

McCauley explained that the process began with strategic planning in 2021, which prompted staff and board members to ask how the museum could be of most value to the community, soliciting feedback and studying sustainable organizations of a similar size.

“Of course, once you start with one change, you wind up needing to make 10 more,” McCauley said, noting that the historical building which houses the museum not only suffered from a lack of ramps, but also from unwieldy stairways, low doorways and low lighting, and bad handrails.

DiPietro pointed out that the elevator finally goes all the way down to the basement.

The work remains ongoing, and some spaces will stay closed for renovations for the next few months. In the meantime the museum is also reworking its exhibits.

McCauley clarified that the museum’s exhibit infrastructure now supports rotating its exhibits in and out of display periods, rather than remaining with the previous status quo of permanently established exhibits, so that the museum can share more of its collection with the public.

By enabling annual themes for its exhibits, McCauley said the rotating exhibits can incorporate new research, better address gaps in the historical record, and allow its information to be more inclusive of a broader variety and number of groups, including through partnerships with outside organizations.

“It also allows us to use history, and art, to better contextualize the present,” McCauley said. “The past can often offer lessons on what we’re grappling with today. It’s just one of the ways we can engage with the community, year after year, with the flexibility to delve into history’s complexities and share more of its perspectives.”

McCauley also emphasized that the museum’s renovations retain connections to the past by being reversible, so that changes to the building can be restored to its original form in the future if needed.

McCauley said the museum will transition into its first annual theme of “home” by next year, exploring what the idea of “home” means, and how it connects people as well as examining the concept of “home” structurally, linguistically and emotionally.

“We’ve been working on all of this for quite some time now,” McCauley said. “We’re wrapping up the first phase, to better ensure accessibility, and we’re thrilled with the changes that have been made to provide not only broader access, but also greater safety and even comfort.”

The Ferguson Gallery within the museum is currently displaying Jamestown S’Klallam artist Timothy O’Connell III’s yíy’ yaʔ cn ʔiʔ ʔuʔk^w ɬníɬ cn nəsʔáʔɬaʔ (I Was Far Away But Now I’m Here), a body of work exploring Indigenous identity, movement and homecoming.

Raised in Hawai’i and now rooted in the Olympic Peninsula, O’Connell’s paintings merge Coast Salish design elements with contemporary techniques, creating what McCauley deemed “a striking visual dialogue” between ancestral tradition and modern storytelling, inviting viewers to reflect “on landscapes left behind, returned to and reimagined.”

And in the Wilson Gallery, artist Meg Kaczyk is sharing what McCauley deemed “an intimate and deeply moving portrayal of caregiving” through her exhibition, “Notes from Next to the Bed: A Caregiving Love Story in Words and Pictures.”

What began as Kaczyk’s daily sketchbook practice, during the final months of her husband’s life, evolved into a year-long artistic chronicle.

Through gouache, charcoal and oil paintings, Kaczyk is credited by McCauley with exploring themes of “love, loss and resilience,” and offering “a profound meditation on the beauty of human connection, during life’s most vulnerable moments.”

DiPietro pointed out that the galleries’ new wainscoting allows the art to be displayed at eye-level, rather than forcing viewers to crane their necks to take in the exhibits.

“Also, we no longer have windows in any of the galleries, since we always had to close them and cover them up to display the art,” DiPietro said.

The Museum of Art and History will be open Thursdays through Sundays, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., with extended hours on the first Saturday of each month, as part of “Free First Saturday.”