Baranov Museum Gets New Curator of Collections and Exhibits

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

The Baranov Museum has a new employee to fill the position Anjuli Grantham left behind when she stepped down as curator of collection and exhibits. Alana Blumenthal says she’s originally from Philadelphia and has been working in museums for the last few years. Her last position, she says, was curator and director of administration at the Loudoun  Museum in Loudoun County, Virginia.

“We had everything from the native communities right up to modern artists and political events. It covered a lot of the civil war because we were right on the Potomac, so we were right on the international border. A lot of battles and crossings happened right through there. So, general history, but a lot to do mostly with the revolutionary [war] through WWII.”

She says before that, she worked at the Jewish Museum in New York City and then at the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum in Leadville, Colorado.

Blumenthal says she already has some plans for what she wants to accomplish in her new role. For instance, refreshing the signage at the museum.

“I did a lot of work at my last job with accessibility, making sure that fonts are legible for people with different learning disorders, so I haven’t really looked at what the signage is at this museum, I can’t say how accessible it is or not, but that’s something that I’m looking forward to exploring and hopefully updating.”

She says she arrived in Kodiak with her husband on Monday, and began work Tuesday.