Bassinger leaves her mark

When Marilyn Bassinger speaks about the Ellen Noël Art Museum, excitement rising in her voice and with wide eyes, it’s apparent she loves the place through and through.

Just ask her, and she’ll tell you all about the George Milly Rhodus Sculpture and Sensory Garden, often used as an outdoor wonderland for children who are hearing, visually or otherwise impaired.

She’ll tell you all about the museum’s mission to bring culture, color and fun to the Basin, the region that so generously supports the museum.

When Bassinger steps down at the end of 2009 after serving 20 years as the executive director of the Ellen Noël Art Museum, she will be leaving a legacy of working with the staff and overseeing the museum’s growth from a fledgling experiment to a major cultural force in the Permian Basin.

“It was a group effort from the very beginning,” Bassinger said. “I was new at being a director, and it was just a learning curve from the very beginning.”

Johnnye Ryan, a former president of the museum’s board who currently is on the board’s search committee for Bassinger’s replacement, said she has worked with Bassinger since she began at the museum in the late 1980s and is sad to see her go.

“She is such a great administrator and leader,” Ryan said. “Gosh, I hate to see her go, but she certainly earned her retirement. She leaves the museum in much better position than when she arrived.”

Among Bassinger’s greatest achievements during her tenure at the Noël were the facility’s near doubling in size to 22,000 square feet and the significant growth of the institution’s endowment fund.

But the biggest feather in Bassinger’s cap, Ryan continued, was her indispensable role in the museum’s accreditation with the American Association of Museums — a prestigious distinction that Bassigner said is only held by 7 percent of the country’s museums.

“She’s just tireless,” Bassinger said. “She just works so hard for the museum and has for the whole time that she’s been with us.”

Nowadays, when the museum’s staff gets together to discuss long-term projects that will come to fruition after she leaves, Bassinger said, she has to remember to use the pronoun “you,” not the first-person “we.”

“That’s hard, to extract oneself from the excitement,” Bassinger said. It’s hard to extract from the staff, and the board members and the volunteers. But it’s time.”

And what a time to leave, too.

As is the case for just about every other museum and nonprofit around the country, trying times have fallen on the Noël, considering the $1 million in investments it has lost during the past year’s economic freefall in the United States.

Bassinger, however, insisted that she’s optimistic. To her, the troubled times are an opportunity for the new director, whoever it will be, to take a creative approach that ultimately will make the museum that much stronger when the recession finally comes to an end. 

“A challenging economy can be extremely stressful, but that stressful situation can inspire new ideas, creativity and teamwork in solving problems,” Bassinger wrote in a follow up e-mail to an interview. “ ‘Making do with less’ has become a national museum theme and one for most nonprofits. What seems impossible can perhaps become possible with broader cooperation and support from the community and teamwork.”

Bassinger, after all, should know. She became the museum’s director during “a challenging time” in the late 1980s when an oil bust descended on the region, causing the now-familiar collapse of the local economy.

But the museum made it then, she said, and she has confidence the board will find a replacement who will do what it takes to lead it through today’s tough economic climate.

She said many of museum directors like herself across the country have begun to retire in droves, leaving vacancies for a “whole new generation” of museum leaders.

“We’re not running away,” she said. “It’s just time.”

Bassinger said she has no doubts the museum will find “just the right replacement.”

“You have to work yourself to pieces,” Bassinger said, “but you’ll never get bored.”

As for how she will spend her retirement, Bassinger acknowledged she’s not as young as she once was and probably cannot do all the things she planned, but she’s got some ideas nonetheless.

The most important thing, she said, is to remember to “keep moving mentally so you don’t get rusty like an old suit of armor.”

“Sitting in a rocking chair and knitting is not one of the things I look forward to,” Bassinger smiled. “There are always new things to do and pursue, and new places to see.”

WANT TO APPLY

>> The Ellen Noël Art Museum is searching for a replacement to take over Marilyn Bassinger’s job as the museum’s executive director. Preferably, an applicant should have at least five years experience working at a museum and a master’s degree in fine arts or a master’s degree in art history or museum studies.

To apply, send cover letter, resumé and contact information for three professional references to Barbara Davis, search committee chairperson. Also, e-mail submissions to lwarner@netwest.com and send hard copy to Barbara Davis at 35 Muirfield Drive, Odessa, TX 79762.

BY THE NUMBERS

Here’s a look at how the Ellen Noël Art Museum has grown since Marilyn Bassinger became its executive director in 1989.

>> Full-time employees then: 3.

>> Full-time employees now: 6.

>> Facility square feet then: 11,000.

>> Facility square feet now: 22,000.

>> Approximate annual operating budget then: $150,000.

>> Approximate annual operating budget now: $850,000. 

WANT TO APPLY

>> The Ellen Noël Art Museum is searching for a replacement to take over Marilyn Bassinger’s job as the museum’s executive director. Preferably, an applicant should have at least five years experience working at a museum and a master’s degree in fine arts or a master’s degree in art history or museum studies.

To apply, send cover letter, resumé and contact information for three professional references to Barbara Davis, search committee chairperson. Also, e-mail submissions to lwarner@netwest.com and send hard copy to Barbara Davis at 35 Muirfield Drive, Odessa, TX 79762.

BY THE NUMBERS

Here’s a look at how the Ellen Noël Art Museum has grown since Marilyn Bassinger became its executive director in 1989.

>> Full-time employees then: 3.

>> Full-time employees now: 6.

>> Facility square feet then: 11,000.

>> Facility square feet now: 22,000.

>> Approximate annual operating budget then: $150,000.

>> Approximate annual operating budget now: $850,000.