The Museum
Staff
Staff Bios
Connie Barlow, Executive Director has been with the New England Quilt Museum since June 2007. She has graduate degrees in Museum Studies and Museum Administration plus almost 20 years of museum and management experience.
Connie says her museum career itself has been something of a patchwork with decorative arts always being a common thread. In graduate school she completed an internship at the Renwick Gallery, the handcrafts museum of the Smithsonian, and worked part-time as an editorial assistant at the Textile Museum in Washington, D.C. Later she became site administrator for an historic house museum in Connecticut, and then segued into the position of executive director for a history museum, which had wonderful samplers in their collections.
“American furniture and textiles have always been a keen interest of mine. My idea of a fun vacation is touring historic house museums—I can’t get enough of them! And I’ve been known to drive 12 hours round-trip to spend an hour-and-a-half viewing a quilt exhibit as I did for the Baltimore Album Quilts exhibit at the Maryland Historical Society in 2001.”
Although not a quilter herself, Connie used to think she collected antique quilts before working at NEQM. Now she knows that she just “accumulates” pieces of personal or sentimental interest!
Rhonda Galpern, Outreach Programs Manager, she has been teaching quilting classes for adults and children in the greater Boston area since 1989.
Rhonda’s own quilts have been featured in the Boston Globe and Miniature Quilts. She has organized groups and designed quilts to benefit numerous not-for-profit charities, as well as having designed a 9/11 commemorative quilt and quilts for other public spaces.
Rhonda has been coordinating Outreach Programming for the New England Quilt Museum since 1998. In this position she has organized a talented team of volunteers who have a wide range of quilting skills. Every Thursday during Community Quilting, they work on raffle quilts, prepare fabrics for community projects and interact with visitors detailing the museum’s rapport with the local community.
Rhonda also coordinates the museum’s participation in annual citywide events such as Winterfest, Kids’ Week, Lowell Women’s Week, and the City of Lights Parade. In addition, she represents NEQM at regional quilt shows to raise visibility for the museum and to promote the annual Lowell Quilt Festival.
Rhonda has developed programs for teachers and students that use familiar art techniques but substitute fabrics in place of paper. Class projects are organized in conjunction with art, geography, history/social studies, math, reading, or science curriculum. The students’ efforts are often showcased in the Community Quilting Exhibition, a part of the Lowell Quilt Festival.
Rhonda also works with after school programs at Girls Inc. of Greater Lowell, introducing basic sewing and quilting skills to participants.
Rhonda is always eager to talk with teachers, parents of home-schooled children, scout leaders, and leaders of other youth groups to schedule a customized, age-appropriate program and tour of the museum.
Joan Ciolino is a Gloucester resident who joined the NEQM in 2006 as a part-time bookkeeper. She and her husband, Joe have owned and operated a gift shop in downtown Gloucester since 1991.
Joan is also the former Director of the Sargent House Museum in Gloucester, a 1782 historic house museum, and her first project as their director was to have the quilts in their collection documented by the Mass Quilts Project. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Sawyer Free Library and is an avid reader, quilter and struggling needlepoint novice.
Christina (Chrissy) Inge, Marketing and Public Relations Manager, is an avid quilter and knitter with ten years' experience in journalism and marketing. Her design articles have been featured in Piecework, Victorian Decorating, and Victoriana. Her quilt designs have also appeared in Quilter's World, Quilt Magazine and Quick Quilts. A former journalist, she has written for online and print publications including MSN.com, GreenBiz, and Succeed, and continues to contribute to professional marketing publications. Chrissy serves as webmaster and produces the museum's print and email newsletters, as well as creating publicity materials for the museum's 4-5 exhbitions per year.
Chrissy combines her interest in textile arts with her specialty of marketing and her interest in all aspects of sustainability. She served as the organizer for Campus Sustainability track at the UMass Amherst Sustainable Energy Summit, also teaching a workshop on reducing energy usage on college campuses. She holds a Master's in Instructional Technology. A marketing consultant, Chrissy has also taught workshops and spoken on marketing at conferences including PodCampNH, and the Center for Nonprofit Success' Boston Fundraising Summit.