World-traveling Wisconsin native lands in Walnut Grove as the new curator at the Wilder Museum
“Before I even had an interview, I got a call from the president of the (Laura Ingalls Wider Museum) board warning me how far out the museum was,” laughed Julian Nolan, the new curator at the popular museum.
But Nolan, originally from Lake Mills, WI, assured Board President Maddie Frank that he knew where Walnut Grove was, and that he was serious about the position.
Not long after that initial call, he interviewed and was offered the position. Just two weeks after that, he moved to southwest Minnesota and hit the ground running.
A graduate of the University of Minnesota, this is Nolan’s first curator position. However, he spent the last two years obtaining his Master’s in Management for Art and Culture abroad. The program allows students to spend at least a semester in four different European cities: Lisbon (Portugal), Rotterdam (Germany), Paris (France), and Glasgow (Scotland). He then spent a few months working for a non-profit in Amsterdam that provides aid for cultural heritage in emergency situations.
And while he may not be from the area, he did grow up hearing the stories of Laura and the Ingalls family through the books and the TV series.
“I have fond childhood memories with them (the books); they remind me of my mom, “ he said, noting that she taught him how to read using the series.
So far, the real place has lived up to the childhood memories: Nolan had been looking for a job outside of an urban area, and is already settling into his new life on the prairie.
Nolan grew up in a town of more than 6,000, Lake Mills,which sits on I-94 between Madison and Milwaukee. He said living out here is a different kind of rural, but the change isn’t unwelcome.
“I was a bit sick of living in Cities,” he said. “And when I saw the landscape as I was driving out here for the first time, I really loved it.”
He’s hoping to make some updates to the museum, and is using his international schooling to help guide his decision-making process.
“I’m asking myself, ‘If I was a tourist from another country, what information would I need to know and how would I want to take in that information?’” he explained.
When answering those questions, he realized that some of the exhibits needed a bit more context to tell the grander story of settlers on the plains, and what happened to the town before and after the time the Ingalls family spent there.
Some of those changes are already happening in the Depot building.
“It’s been in need of repairs for some time,” Nolan said, adding that the building just needed a bit of freshening up, starting with removing old carpeting and adding a fresh coat of paint. “A few changes will make a big difference.”
The museum officially opens April 1, so time is of the essence for the depot project.
“I want it to be a finished product,” Nolan said. “It’s not impossible with such a great team and so much support from the board.”
The Depot building isn’t the only one that needs some refreshing; currently, two buildings on the museum grounds sit empty. But Nolan wants to change that and has been discussing potential options for both the Masters Store and the Lumberyard Building with Museum Director Adisyn Erdman.
“A lot of the plans that I have for the museum would require me to be out here for quite a while, “he said. “Going from Paris to the prairie is a bit of a strange one for sure, but I really like it so far and I would like to stay out here.”
