Anna Altschwager
Creative Director
As Creative Director, Anna shapes and guides a project’s creative vision across mediums, overseeing narratives and scripts, facilitating charrettes and creative workshops, and ensuring current pedagogy and inclusive practice underpin the work and partnerships.
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Insight
Before Thinkwell, Anna spent several years in Public History as a Director at Old World Wisconsin, a 600-acre living history site interpreting 100 years of immigrant identity in the Midwest. Before that, she managed the Visitor Experience at the Ohio History Connection and worked as a Project Manager at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. Anna’s work focuses on redefining relevance with accessible storytelling and empowering staff to bring their whole selves to work, creating spaces for dialog and change-making.
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Education
Master of Arts in History Museum Studies, Cooperstown Graduate Program, The State University of New York
Bachelor of Arts in Art History and Material Culture, University of Wisconsin, Madison
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Background
6 years, Assistant Director, Guest Experience Old World Wisconsin, Wisconsin Historical Society
2 years, Site Director, Ohio Village and Visitor Experience Manager, Ohio History Museum
7 years, Exhibition Project Manager, Field Museum of Natural History
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Select Project Experience
Space Center Houston, Texas
PHOS Cultural Park, Athens, Greece
Conner Prairie Strategic Planning, Indiana
National Federation for the Blind, Maryland
Orlando Holocaust Museum of Hope and Humanity, Florida
Fernbank Museum, Georgia
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Publications & Presentations
“The Ghost of Christmas Future” in Interpreting Christmas for Historic Sites and Museums, ed. Ken Turino and Max A. van Balgooy, 1st ed., American Association for State and Local History and Rowman and Littlefield, Spring 2023.
Presented at
European Network of Science Centers and Museums (Ecsite)
American Association for State and Local History (AASLH)
Visitor Studies Association (VSA)
Association of Midwest Museums (AMM)