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As someone who spent a two-decade career as a professor of marketing and entrepreneurship, Museum volunteer Jane Licata may be seeing a lot of similarities at the Art Museum.
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Jane Licata
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"It's an amazing place," she says, "With very little staff, and I'm sure a limited budget, they put out some wonderful exhibits as well as doing great outreach programs, to kids and adults."
A native of Williamstown, NJ, Jane and her late husband, Joseph, also a professor, had always wanted to retire near an ocean; five years ago, they chose Little River. Sadly, Joseph passed away two years ago. Afterward, Jane says she decided to make her life "what I'd always wanted it to be." Based on a lifelong love for museums, she grabbed an opportunity to volunteer at the Art Museum last October. It turned out to be just the missing ingredient she'd been looking for.
"I was really missing the intellectual stimulation of working," she says. "Here, working at the front desk, I have to give a little spiel to the visitors about the exhibits and so on. I have to be on my toes. You're busy all day, and before you know it, you're closing the doors for the night."
Jane says she enjoys meeting and talking with people - who often are from one of the many places where she and her husband lived during their working careers. But she also finds Art Museum visitors to be a cut above the typical beachgoer in Myrtle Beach.
"It's a different kind of people who come here," she says. "They're museum followers, people who look for museums wherever they go and who are serious about artistic endeavors. A lot of them come back every year . . . and they're never disappointed."
Jane has nothing but praise for the staff members who helped orient her to the workings of the Museum when she arrived - a time when she says she was "a bumbling idiot" on the phone and computer systems, among other things. She also gives high praise to the thoroughness and the depth of planning that staffers put into each exhibit.
"It's a lot more than just putting up pictures or putting out sculpture," she says. "Nothing is left undone. Besides the exhibits, the Museum offers, from time to time, docent tours, lectures series and other activities. And Karen Olson, the buyer for the Museum Shop, finds interesting items for the gift shop, things that are relevant to the exhibit. For example, for the current exhibit (Feast Your Eyes), she's brought in Gullah grits, special honeys, Carolina Gold rice, even cookbooks - things that the exhibit might whet your appetite for!"
In addition to greeting visitors and giving them an overview of the current exhibits, Jane can be involved in a variety of tasks from helping assemble mailings to proofreading text in mailers or internal documents. Part of the appeal of her duties - which she describes as "not work work" - is the knowledge that the staff are depending on her and that they clearly appreciate everything she does.
"I probably get way more than they get from me," she insists. "I really cherish this form of giving back to the community. I get to spend a day in the company of people I really like - these people are very good - and I definitely feel appreciated."
If you'd like to get to know Jane better, stop into the Museum any Tuesday, when you'll find her at the front desk - or nearby. She always enjoys hearing about visitors' hometowns and about their impressions of the Myrtle Beach area.
"I like to talk," she says with a laugh. "I guess that's why they put me on the front desk!"
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