Nan Plummer

Love of art attracted Nan Plummer to a career in museum work, and the joy she finds in interacting with smart, creative and dedicated people has kept her there.

Landing the World of the Pharaohs: Treasures of Egypt Revealed exhibit, now at the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock, provided a mountaintop experience for her professionally and personally.

“It’s a beautiful show with thrilling and beautiful exhibits,” said Plummer, AAC executive director. “I was one of those 10-11-year-olds who got excited by Egyptian art and dressed up as Nefertiti for Halloween.”

The exhibit is expected to set records for the center, which already draws twice the crowds of art museums with comparable budgets. The AAC’s outreach program attracts 20 times the average attendance for off-site events among art museums.

Plummer has led the center for seven years, overseeing a budget of $7.9 million and a staff of 100. Before coming to Arkansas, she worked in Ohio at the Toledo Museum of Art as head of education, 1999-2002, and programs administrator, 1996-99.

Her résumé includes stints as assistant director for programs at the University of Michigan Museum of Art, 1990-1996; assistant director and executive director of the Artrain traveling art museum 1985-90; and project coordinator-systems analyst for the department of genetics at the University of Michigan Medical School, 1983-85.

Plummer is a magna cum laude history of art graduate of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass., with a master’s and doctorate in art history from the University of Michigan. She also holds a master’s in business administration from Michigan.

Since World of the Pharaohs opened on Sept. 25, about 20,000 students have visited, bringing a din of excitement by the busload to the Arts Center.

“It is so loud down there, and I’ve happily gotten used to that,” Plummer said. “One of the things I was happiest to hear from the board about was the educational possibilities of this show.”

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