“What does our history mean for us today?” is just one aspect Shelly Leavens wants to hone in during her tenure as Jefferson County Historical Society executive director.

One of the aspects Leavens, who was hired in June, would like to explore to accomplish this task is to blending history with art. One of the preliminary ideas she came up with is using the old jail cells, which have retained their authenticity through the years.

“This is just one example of how we can bring in community conversation around something that is happening around our world,” Leavens said.

By doing so, she looks to invite artists to take part in those conversations by using a residency program. Another part of the museum Leavens looks to reinvent is the old exercise yard, which is currently overgrown and used by pigeons to roost.

Having grown up in Vancouver, she has just a few ties to the Olympic Peninsula. Throughout her formative years, she took occasional backpacking and camping vacations in the Olympics, though not as many as she did in the Cascades. While she was a student at the University of Washington for her masters in museology, her first internship was at the Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle, which is closely tied to Port Townsend.

“People who work at the boat shop had gone to school at the Northwest School of Wooden Boat Building in (Port) Hadlock,” she said. “We would come every year as staff and friends to the wood boat festival. That was my introduction to Port Townsend.”

Her first foray out of Vancouver was when she was an exchange student to Sweden, inciting her passion of worldwide travel. After high school, Leavens attended Penn State University, a legacy school for her family. Her undergraduate degree was in anthropology and International Studies, with a minor in German.

Her senior thesis project was to refashioning an exhibition on the Lowland people of South America, featuring six display cases she redesigned and researched all the objects. That was the point where she found museum work was her passion.

Though she did not hop into the profession right away, Leavens found employment as a park ranger at Death Valley National Park and a small state park in Indiana where she worked with raptors. It was then she decided to get back to museums.

“I worked a ton of different jobs in the non-profit sector dealing with education and history,” she said, adding she needed a graduate degree to fully pursue it, leading her to the University of Washington.

After she received that degree, Leavens worked at different organizations in the Seattle area, including the Drachen Foundation, a kite museum, and Gage Academy of Art as the art curator where she found her love of art curation.

When she decided to start a family, she took a three year break inciting a move out of the metropolitan area to find the opening at the Jefferson County Historical Society.

“This is where this museum fits my passions,” Leavens said about her interests in history and art. “And this place has both.”

She remembered when she traveled to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. when she was in middle school. One exhibit drew her attention and stuck in her memory was a gigantic display of eggs, which got an emotional and physical reaction out of her.

“It was about the object in that moment,” she said. “I think about that now in terms of how do we create experiences in our museums that are immersive and connect people emotionally to their history and their experience of place.”

Leavens, who identifies herself as an artist and writer, said it came down to telling stories.”

“It’s about sharing them with people. Objects have a lot of power,” she added about what can be found inside the doors of the Art and History Museum located in downtown Port Townsend.

Along with connecting the Historical Society with all areas in the county, Leavens looks to increase programming in general, changing current perspectives about the organization, creating advisory panels to represent the communities being served, as well as more collaboration throughout the county.

While looking at the guest book, she noticed many of those who come through the doors of the museum are often from out of town and who find it by walking by.

“Port Townsend is the destination and the museum is a piece of their experience when they’re here,” Leavens said.

The Historical Society are stewards over the downtown Port Townsend-based Jefferson Museum of Art and History, Rothschild House, Commanding Officer’s Quarters and the Gateway Visitor Center.

A strong staff and board support Leavens’ leadership as executive director, all of whom are excited about what is next for the Historical Society and its institutions. Leavens urged any who have an interest in volunteering to join an advisory board or a committee to do so to share their new ideas.

“Shelly is young, energetic, and full of exciting ideas that are already reinvigorating the JCHS,” stated a press release from the Jefferson County Historical Society. “Her work experience includes being a museologist, independent curator, oral historian, and public events manager for a non-profit. When the JCHS Board of Directors first met Shelly, they were in complete agreement that she was the person they wanted to lead them. They are ready for the new directions and revitalized vision she is offering the 139-year-old organization.”