Santa Fe Children’s Museum Names Acting Executive Director

After just about a year serving as the Santa Fe Children's Museum's senior director of development and communications, Hannah Hausman will become the institution's acting executive director, replacing Susan Lynn, who will retire after her three-year tenure. The change goes into effect on March 4.

Hausman is a Santa Fe native whose previous work as the Miami Children's Museum's director of external affairs lasted nearly 13 years. She returned to town three years ago and previously worked for the Center for Contemporary Arts.

"I grew up here, in Tesuque, and when I was graduating [high school], my sister was in Miami and said 'come on down,'" Hausman tells SFR. "I did that thing some people in Santa Fe do where we go on an adventure— and my adventure lasted maybe a little longer than others'—and then I came back to be closer to family. And the desert was calling me."

Hausman also notes she wanted her son, 5, to have a childhood similar to her own. That Santa Fe love runs deep.

As for the museum, Hausman says she's focused on a number of ongoing initiatives, including the upcoming annual outdoor summer camp, a newly formed diversity and equity inclusion committee and continued gardening on the museum's one acre plot of land. Additionally, virtual field trips have served over 6,000 kids across the state, and the popular Grab and Go Kit program partnered with local organizations statewide, such as Santa Fe Public Schools, the City of Santa Fe and the Rio Arriba County Health Department (among others), to provide children and families with free offline activities. Hausman estimates almost 5,000 kits have gone out since the program's inception at the outset of the pandemic, and the consistently rotating themes (astronomy, gardening and rivers to name a few) have been a hit. Museum officials hope to distribute 20,000 kits in 2021 according to Hausman.

If nothing else, she says, COVID-19 has shined a light on which New Mexico youths have access to things like internet, regular meals and play time, both in and outdoors—and which don't. She says the pandemic has a "bit of a silver lining," however, in that the museum can better allocate resources to those who most need them. Still, to do that effectively, she's hoping for feedback.

"Nonprofits will sometimes say 'This is what the community needs,' instead of actually asking the community," Hausman explains. "We're having conversations first, pulling in the beneficiary voice and trying to pull together families to ask them what they need."

"She's amazing. She's local. She's a mother. She's got a ton of experience," the museum's new board president Caitlin Brodsky, who took the seat in January, says of Hausman. "She's got 20-plus years of experience, and 13 of that is in children's museums specifically, so she comes to the table with a lot of knowledge and fresh eyes for a community she really believes in and supports."

Both Hausman and Brodsky say the museum is in a strong financial position, mainly thanks to its roster of donors.

"We are grateful for the support of the community," Hausman notes. "When COVID-19 hit, we pivoted really fast, and we continue to do so. Now, that word has been overused so much, but it's exactly what some have done, what some have been unable to do, and the donors have stepped up. They believe in our mission, so when you ask what's next—what isn't next?"

Of particular import to Hausman are a potential Southside expansion for the museum, and upcoming renovations to the original location's outdoor space. Administrators tapped the National Wildlife Federation's ECHO program (Early Childhood Health Outdoors) to design the master plan, and a number of donors have already come through with much of the funding.

"The mission is to naturalize play, so instead of some plastic playhouse thing, it's a stump, it's dirt, it's natural," Hausman says. "The actual space is an acre-plus, and we're going to expand upon what's already been designed and build, for example, an adobe village, a zipline, a climbing structure, and maybe it'll be reminiscent of New Mexico; an amphitheater, a music plaza with instruments. We call it 'loose parts playground.' Just tons of exhibit experiences, but using the playground as your guide…obviously everything is going to be ADA accessible."

That project will reportedly take several years to complete, and will not affect any farming done on the land. Brodsky says the museum donated more than 1,000 pounds of food from its garden to the Bienvendios Outreach pantry in 2020, and Hausman says that partnership will continue in 2021.