By Anne Levin

Jill Barry

Looking back on her seven years as executive director of Morven Museum & Garden, Jill Barry is confident that she is leaving the organization in good hands.

“The most gratifying thing has been how the institution has really come together,” said Barry, who announced her departure last week. She is relocating to Texas to become CEO of the Houston Botanic Garden. Her last day at Morven is September 1.

“The staff is really strong,” she continued. “And quite frankly, we’ve done a lot. When I say ‘we,’ I mean that I’ve done none of these things myself.”

During Barry’s tenure, Morven built the Stockton Education Center, a project that had been in the making for a decade. The building, which opened on the grounds in 2018, added program space, a classroom, new offices, storage space, and more.

“That was one of the first charges when I got here,” she said. “They needed more space, and we were able to get it done. Building a building is always a nice achievement.”

Steering the historic property through the pandemic presented considerable challenges. “Nobody knew what was going on,” Barry said. “We had to come together and figure out how to go forward. I think because we were small and facile, we could move a lot faster than bigger museums. We were one of the first cultural organizations in the state to open safely.”

When the shutdown began, Morven was planning its annual plant sale. “The staff was able to get a website up, and get the sale online,” said Barry. “Being able to create an income generator was a pretty big deal.”

Morven was originally the home of the Stockton family, which owned slaves for several years. That part of its history became a focus during Barry’s tenure.

“The museum field had been moving toward a more robust interpretation of that history when I arrived here,” Barry said. “The staff, and later the board, were ready enough to really start having these conversations in earnest. One proud moment was being able to bring the Slave Dwelling Project [a national program at sites where people were enslaved] here in 2018, for the first time. We had a big community supper, a fireside chat into the evening, and about 20 of us slept in the museum that night, where the slaves were believed to have slept. It was a very impactful program that people still talk about today.”

Barry’s new position will present new challenges. The three-year-old Houston Botanic Garden is a 132-acre expanse located on a former public golf course. “It’s still in its early startup days,” she said. “We will have to do building projects, and a lot of the kinds of things we’ve done at Morven. That’s the stuff I love to do.”

Elizabeth Allan, Morven’s current deputy director and curator and an employee for the past 13 years, will serve as interim director while a national search is launched for Barry’s permanent successor.

“Moven is in a very solid place,” Barry said. “Everyone knows what they are doing and what they are supposed to be doing. I’m a little sad, but I don’t feel bad.”