The Sweetwater County Historical Museum Board of Directors is excited to announce the promotion of Dave Mead to the position of Executive Director. Mead has been with the museum as the Exhibit Coordinator for eleven years. His exhibits have been admired in the museum and offsite at other locations across the county. Mead has led countless tours of the museum and downtown Green River, plus birding field trips and treks to historic trails sites.
The former Executive Director, Brigida Blasi, resigned in July to take a position as the Public History Educator at the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. Blasi took the position of the Acting Director for the museum in 2015 and accepted the position as the Executive Director the following year. Blasi’s leadership led to many new projects, book publications, a strong online presence for the museum and countless other achievements. Under Blasi’s direction, the museum began hosting the popular History Fair, an annual hands-on learning experience attended by all the third-grade classes in the county.
From the first directives concerning COVID-19 protocol, Blasi led the museum staff in creating a safe environment for staff and patrons. The staff made adjustments to the museum floorplan to provide a safe experience for the public and created history-based backpacks of information for visitors to take outside the museum to explore. Museum staff also enhanced their online presence to include YouTube videos, virtual workshops, podcasts and increased social media posts.
Mead has been a vital part of the Museum staff under the direction of Blasi, sustaining vital operations and implementing positive changes. Recent improvements include moving the museum’s collections to a county-owned facility to ensure better storage and preservation of historic artifacts and archives.
Richelle Rawlings-Carroll, Museum Board of Directors Chair, expressed her confidence in the promotion of Mead to Executive Director. “Dave has built strong relationships with the members of the community as well as the staff at the museum. He is very cognizant of the needs in the county. Collaboration is a strong point for Dave within his staff and county entities. His creativity and enthusiasm will bring new ideas for celebrating the county history while helping to rebuild the economy through the tourism that the museum draws and public programming.”
November is a great month to visit the museum to meet the new director and view the Day of the Dead Ofrenda and other exhibits. A new holiday exhibit is also being developed for December.
The Sweetwater County Historical Museum is located at 3 East Flaming Gorge Way, Green River, and is open 9-5, Tuesday through Saturday. Museum admission is free to the public. Please call 307-872-6435 for research requests or more information.
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