Please join us for lunch!

For our meeting Monday, April 17th 2023, we welcome

Amy F. Bartow-Melia, South Carolina State Museum (SCSM) Executive Director.

Amy joined the South Carolina State Museum (SCSM) team as Executive Director in August 2020. She developed a love for history, art and the natural world at an early age through annual family trips to museums, historic sites, and national parks. Inspired by a family full of educators, she began her career as a classroom teacher in the US and abroad. Before joining the SCSM, Amy spent over twenty years at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in a variety of leadership roles advancing education, public programs, digital engagement, exhibition interpretive planning, and strategic initiatives, including co-leading the Museum’s 2020-2030 strategic planning process. Amy was the former chair of the American Alliance of Museum’s (AAM) Accreditation Commission and was recently a member of AAM’s Excellence in DEAI Task Force. She has also held leadership roles in AAM’s Education Professional Committee (EdCom), the Museum Education Roundtable, and the National Council for History Education. Amy was the founding director of two arts nonprofits – The London International Gallery of Children’s Art and Children’s’ International Art Outreach (CIAO). She holds a B.A. in Anthropology and Education from the College of William and Mary, a MAT in Museum Education from the George Washington University, and is a graduate of the Getty Museum Leadership Institute and the Smithsonian Leadership Development Program. Amy grew to love South Carolina through childhood visits to her Great Aunt and Uncle’s shrimping business outside of Beaufort, SC. She currently lives in Columbia, SC with her husband, two daughters, and rescue dog and cat. When she isn’t exploring a museum exhibition, you can find her outside enjoying a run, a hike, or curled up under a tree with a good book.