Joel Bartsch: A Cursory Look at Middle Eastern Culture

Wednesday, October 27, 2021

A Cursory Look at Middle Eastern Culture

Joel A. Bartsch is the former curator at the Colorado School of Mines Geology Museum in 1980, where he held the post of curatorial assistant. Since then, he has served as the curator to multiple museums, and he is the president of the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Joel Bartsch enjoys international travel, with a focus on Middle Eastern culture.

One essential part of Middle Eastern culture is family. This part of the culture can be seen in Arab honorific names, such as “Ibn” and “Abu.” In the primary Arab setting, extended families live together. Cousin, second cousins, grandparents, and other extended family members co-habit. However, migration to more urban areas is affecting this tradition.

It is also important to note the ethnic diversity in the Middle Eastern region. The languages spoken in the Middle East are from three main families, Semitic, Indo-European, and Turkic. We can attribute the ethnic and linguistic diversity in the region to the heavy migration of people from Asia, Africa, and Europe, in and out of the area.

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About Joel Bartsch

Since 2004, Joel A. Bartsch has led the Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS) as president and CEO. In this capacity, he coordinates and leads museum staff and curators in the creation and maintenance of immersive exhibits, implements renovation strategies, and promoting museum-wide leadership. Through these efforts and many others, Joel A. Bartsch has nearly doubled both the institution’s annual attendance and membership base. He also oversaw two major expansions at the museum that added more than 250,000 square feet of space.

Mr. Bartsch began gaining experience in museum leadership more than three decades ago, when he joined the Colorado School of Mines Geology Museum as a curatorial assistant and assistant to the director. He held this role during his last years as a mining engineering student at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden. From there, Mr. Bartsch took on staff roles at the Texas Memorial Museum and HMNS, curator of earth sciences at Lyman House Memorial Museum in Hawaii, and director and curator of the California State Mining & Mineral Museum.

Through these positions, Joel Bartsch gained extensive experience in everything from managing daily operations and directing fundraising efforts to writing corporate grant requests. He drew on this experience when he returned to HMNS as a curator, project manager, and director of earth sciences, the positions he held immediately prior to his current role as the president and CEO.