C. M. Russell Museum Complex - Governance and Staff

Governance and Staff

The Trigg-C.M. Russell Foundation, which owns and operates the museum, home, and log cabin studio, is governed by officers and a board of directors. Currently, the five officers are a chair, 1st vice-chair, 2nd vice-chair, treasurer, and secretary. There are 43 members of the board of directors. (This is an increase from the 27 directors and officers the organization had prior to a large expansion of the board in 2008. Board members are limited to two consecutive three-year terms, but may be re-elected to the board after a year away from the board.

The museum suffered a spate of staff turnover in the 1990s and early 2000s. In February 1999, the museum's executive director, Lorne Render, resigned to take a position at a museum in Kansas after eight years on the job. Board member Dan Ewen resigned from the board and served as interim executive director from May to August 1999. But when Ewen returned to his private business, the museum hired Denver, Colorado-based art consultant Thomas Maytham as interim executive director. Maytham served from August to December 1999. Museum curator Elizabeth Dear served as acting executive director from December 1999 to November 2000.

A new executive director, Michael Warner, was appointed in 2000 and given a one-year contract, but Warner resigned in October 2001 after he and the board agreed that neither side was happy with the working relationship. Board member Barbara Moe agreed to serve as "acting manager" from November 2001 until a new executive director was hired.

In April 2002, the board fired the museum's long-time curator, Elizabeth Dear. The Great Falls Tribune, a local newspaper, reported that board members had interfered with her grant funding, her research, and her work. Dear and the museum settled out of court for undisclosed terms in June 2003.

The museum hired Inez Wolins as its new executive director on June 10, 2002. During the next two years, nearly all the museum staff resigned. Wolins herself was fired in March 2004. Although the reasons for Wolins' dismissal were not made public, the local press had reported earlier that Wolins had been forced to resign from her previous position after officials at the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art discovered she did not have the doctorate degree which she claimed to have.

Two months later, the C.M. Russell Museum promoted curator of art Anne Morand to the position of executive director. Morand had been with the museum for only four months. Morand resigned and returned to her previous position in November 2008. Chief Financial Officer Susan Johnson was named interim director. After an eight-month search, the museum hired Darrell G. Beauchamp (former director of the Pearce Collections at Navarro College and former executive director of the Briscoe Western Art Museum) as its new executive director. Morand left in February 2010 to become curator of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, and was replaced in December 2010 by Sarah L. Burt, formerly curator at the Joslyn Art Museum.