Meet Landis Valley Village & Farm Museum's new site administrator [Q&A]

Shawn Gladden has made a career of being, for lack of a better term, a museum fixer. Gladden, the new site administrator for the Landis Valley Village & Farm Museum, began his new role in August. And it's not that the Landis Valley Village & Farm Museum needed "fixing," he says — maybe just some revitalization.

"From the beginning of my career with Maryland Historical Society some 20 years ago, I've always been put into situations where I can use my energy. And I've got a lot of energy," Gladden says. "I've had success kind of rebooting the museums or cultural sites where I've worked and appealing to the existing members and visitors, while building new audiences with new engaging marketing approaches and experiences on site."

In his previous role as executive director and chief operating officer for the Cumberland County Historical Society, Gladden guided the organization through its monumental 150th anniversary. Now, Gladden, who succeeds David Blackburn, will lead Landis Valley Village & Farm Museum into its 100th anniversary in 2025.

"Landis Valley is a staple here," Gladden, 50, says. "This is one of those places where people will say 'I love that place. That's the best place.' The problem is, what usually comes with that is, 'I haven't been there in 10 years.' "

But, for the historian, it's not about looking to the past as much as it's keeping the living history museum alive and thriving into the future.

"We don't want people to just remember the great times they had here in the '80s and '90s," Gladden says. "We want to continue until the 2080s and '90s."

Gladden, who has lived in downtown Lancaster for the last three years, took some time out of his busy schedule preparing for his first Harvest Days festival in his new role, to talk about his plans for the future of the historical museum.

READ: Gardeners flock to Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum for annual Herb and Garden Faire

What are some ways to attract visitors who may not think they're interested in history?

You have to know who today's museum visitor is and what they connect with. The younger museum visitors connect with a lot of things in their life through their devices. And the attention span of the younger generation is very different from those of us who were raised before we had cell phones and the internet. So you've got to understand that attention span and you've got to design your experiences to meet those needs. Ultimately, you want a museum that caters to all visitors.

Sometimes, what you need to do is use your site for something other than what it was originally intended for. Like, some things I've done in the past, and I'm not saying we're necessarily doing these things here but we're looking at all the options, so things like a monthly music concert series — maybe it's historical music like jazz from the 1920s — or ghost tours. Ghost tours may not be an educational history experience, but ghost tours are a great way for you to sneak in some history while you're telling some fancy folk tales.

How are you feeling ahead of your first Harvest Days as the new site administrator?

We're really excited. We just got word that we're going to be able to offer wagon rides at this year's Harvest Days. Tickets are already starting to sell.

You taught U.S. and African American history at Howard Community College in Columbia, Maryland, and the Community College of Baltimore County in Catonsville and Dundalk, Maryland. Are you seeing opportunities to include some Black history at Landis Valley?

Absolutely. As a matter of fact, we are currently working on a Juneteenth event that will be featured as a part of our offerings next year in 2025. And we're hoping that that becomes an annual tradition here.

What are some of the biggest challenges that come with a site like Landis Valley Village & Farm Museum?

Any site where you have 40-plus historic buildings comes with challenges, all across the board, but the most challenging expenses are building maintenance. Caring for the museum is always a challenge. And one of the ways that you can address that, obviously, is raising revenue so you can take care of these issues. We serve anywhere between 20,000 and 30,000 visitors a year, and yet we only have about 300 members. So, we see this as an opportunity to once again reconnect with our community.

What sort of renovations projects are you looking to undertake?

We have some projects on the horizon including renovating our firehouse, our security systems here and our accessibility with regards to ADA accessibility. So, there are definitely some things on the horizon that are planned that we think will enhance the visitor experience.

What sort of things have you learned about Landis Valley and local history since taking on your new role?

People are very connected to the agricultural past here in Lancaster. We're kind of a nice piece of nostalgia for those folks who come from a farming family or an agricultural background. I definitely learned a little bit in my first couple months. I went to the William Chester Ruth event at the Ware Center and learned about Mr. Ruth and his accomplishments and his innovations. Certainly, he is someone who was so significant to this community. And obviously, someone who's African American making these kinds of contributions to Lancaster was a great story. I was really happy to represent the museum there.

Have you gotten a chance to connect with some other local historical societies and museums?

Being that I had been here in Lancaster, even when I wasn't working here at Landis Valley, I had already kind of built connections with some local historical societies, like the East Petersburg Historical Society. And (Sept. 26) we had a really nice members event where I met folks from the Manheim Township Historical Society. I do believe that one of the paths forward to success for any historical cultural institution is its partnerships with its fellow institutions. I've never believed that you compete with other historical organizations. I feel that together, especially in a community as rich in history as Lancaster, partnering with LancasterHistory, or partnering with even Millersville or F&M or Thaddeus Stevens, is a great way for everyone to see success and to show how vibrant a historical community that we have.

What are your hopes for the 100th anniversary?

We would love, as part of our 100th anniversary, to obviously celebrate our presence here and our contributions to the community. We want people to remember we're here. We kind of feel like with all the other things you can do here in Lancaster County maybe we're not on the top of the list for people anymore. By the end of next year, we want to be back on top. We are really well suited to tell the unique agricultural and farm history experience of Lancaster and certainly of the Pennsylvania-German immigrant experience, which is such a big part of what Pennsylvania is. And I think we're pretty uniquely positioned to do that very well. So we just need to remind everybody that we're here. And hopefully, as part of the 100th anniversary, we can reach those new audiences that we're looking for.