City of Bellingham, Whatcom Museum
Museum Executive Director
Position Summary
The Whatcom Museum Executive Director (Executive Director), serving also as the Chief Executive Officer for the Whatcom Museum Foundation’s Board of Trustees, will provide strategic leadership in planning, organizing, and directing all operations and activities of the Whatcom Museum (the Museum). In coordination with other City departments and the Foundation Board, the Executive Director will be responsible for overseeing the Museum’s financial health and sustainability; managing physical facilities and assets; ensuring effective and secure use of data systems; and developing and maintaining an effective workforce and culture of organizational excellence. The Executive Director will be a member of the City’s leadership team, collaborating with the Mayor of Bellingham and other City departments to align strategy, policy, and shared operations with the City’s critical objectives, vision, and values, ensuring the Museum is a vital cultural and educational resource for the community. The Executive Director will work independently, with general guidance from the Whatcom Museum Foundation’s Board of Trustees, to ensure proper prioritization of institutional goals to maximize the effectiveness of the Museum’s operations for the good of the community, in alignment with broader goals as set forth by the City of Bellingham Mayor and City Council.
The Whatcom Museum Executive Director will be responsible for shaping the Museum’s vision, enhancing its role in the community, and overseeing strategic planning and all day-to-day operations of the multi-facility campus. The Whatcom Museum Executive Director is an employee of the Whatcom Museum Foundation, reporting to the Whatcom Museum Foundation’s Board of Directors, and is the Chief Executive Officer for the Whatcom Museum Foundation’s Board of Trustees. The Executive Director’s leadership team includes the chief curator and director of exhibitions, the controller, the development director, the director of collections & operations, and the director of marketing & public relations. Additional employees include docents, interns, part-time visitor attendants, story associates, and Family Interactive Gallery associates. Of the team of 25 total employees, four are City employees, while the remainder are employees of the Whatcom Museum Foundation. The Whatcom Museum Foundation is currently bargaining its first union contract with Teamsters local 231.
Organization
The Whatcom Museum includes a three-building campus in Bellingham’s growing downtown arts district and houses a collection of more than 250,000 artifacts and artworks of regional and national importance, including a vast photographic archive. Centered around the historic Old City Hall—with its iconic clock tower visible throughout downtown—and the nearby Lightcatcher building—featuring a spectacular, translucent wall designed to catch sunlight—the Whatcom Museum plays a central and visible role in Bellingham’s vibrant arts and culture scene.
The Museum’s mission is to serve as a bridge among diverse people, ideas, and traditions by fostering curiosity and joy about our world, through exhibitions, events, educational programs, and collections reflective of the art, nature, Indigenous cultures, and history of the Pacific Northwest region and beyond. The Museum is operated by the Whatcom Museum Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Serving the local community as a regional destination, it is accredited nationally by the American Alliance of Museums, is a member of the American Association for State and Local History, and is a Smithsonian Institution Affiliate.
The Whatcom Museum Foundation Board of Trustees has 10 to 15 voting members, which includes Mayoral appointees. In addition, a City Council Representative and a Whatcom Museum Tribal Liaison sit on the board as ex-officio members. For the 2025 fiscal year, the Museum projects approximately $1.83 million in revenue, 34% of which is funded through the City of Bellingham and Lodging Tax, and $256,600 from endowment support.
Museum Facilities and Programs
The Museum’s original building is the beloved Old City Hall—the first site in the state of Washington to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The historic building, with its Victorian cupolas and central clock tower, is an iconic symbol for the City of Bellingham, beloved by the community. Old City Hall is programmed with exhibitions and remains the site for many of the Museum’s most popular programs. Exhibitions opening in Old City Hall in 2026 include Vivid Victorian, featuring a dozen recently-restored examples of Victorian dress from the Whatcom Museum Collection, paired with photographs from the Photo Archives illustrating the variety of colors and styles typical of the era; as well as Painted Forest: The Science and Beauty of Petrified Wood, featuring the Rice Museum’s collection of ancient specimens.
The Museum’s modern building, the Lightcatcher building, is named for its focal point and most innovative feature: a 36-foot-tall, 180-foot-long translucent wall that acts as a spine connecting the building and its spaces. It originated as an international design competition, was designed by Olson Kundig Architects’ founding partner, Jim Olson, and now houses the bulk of the museum’s vast collections, as well as rotating fine arts exhibitions, and People of the Sea and Cedar, a gallery dedicated to the Coast Salish culture, history, and artistry. The Lightcatcher is also home to the Family Interactive Gallery for children and families, an arts studio/classroom, a research library, the museum store, and an outdoor courtyard used for community events. The 42,000-square-foot-building integrates natural materials native to the region and is the first museum in Washington designed and registered to LEED Silver-Level specifications. Current exhibition highlight includes Verdant: French Masterworks from the National Gallery of Art, an intimate exhibition of three masterworks by Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, and Henri Matisse, on long-term loan from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., through their Across the Nation program. Also slated for 2026 in the Lightcatcher is the nationally-touring exhibition Personal to Political featuring works by 17 African American artists who are reshaping the contemporary art world; an update to the People of the Sea and Cedar exhibition with new contemporary loans by Nooksack Tribe artist Louie Gong; as well as a series of Whatcom Museum Collection exhibitions beginning with Hard Edge, Soft Ground, an exploration of abstraction featuring the museum’s Roy Lichtenstein print, Brushstrokes, 1967.
Old Fire Station No. 1, the second historic building of the Whatcom Museum campus, was the original fire station for Bellingham, built in 1926. It houses the lauded Whatcom Museum Photo Archives; a collection of over 200,000 images and ephemera related to the history of the region. Reporters and researchers, including documentarian Ken Burns, have come to rely on the collection and the expertise of its in-house archivist. The main entrance of Old Fire Station No. 1 has not been open to the public for years, but recently funding has been secured to reopen the building with new photography and history exhibitions, with a reopening slated for late 2028.
The Museum is located within the Bellingham Whatcom Public Facilities District (BWPFD), a joint effort between the City and Whatcom County to invest in the community, with a mission of funding a regional center to increase economic prosperity and lay a foundation for future public and private investment in our community.
Whatcom Museum Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization and an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to creating a diverse work environment that fosters inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility.
The Whatcom Museum serves as a bridge among diverse people, ideas, and traditions by fostering curiosity and joy about our world. We do this through exhibitions, events, educational programs, and collections reflective of the art, nature, Indigenous cultures, and history of our region and beyond.
Land Acknowledgement: The Whatcom Museum acknowledges that we gather on the traditional territory of the Lhaq’temish—Lummi People—and the Nuxwsá7aq—Nooksack People—who have lived in the Coast Salish region from time immemorial. The Museum honors our relationship with all of our Coast Salish neighbors and our shared responsibilities to their homeland where we all reside today.