Joel Bartsch: Perks of Being a Member of the Houston Museum

Thursday, January 6, 2022

Perks of Being a Member of the Houston Museum

Joel A. Bartsch has served in various positions in different museums for about four decades. From 1986 to 1988, he was the curator of earth sciences at Lyman House Memorial Museum, where he doubled the museum’s membership base in his first quarter. Presently, Joel Bartsch is the president of the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences (HMNS)

HMNS is located in Houston, Texas, and is a 501 (c) (3) organization partly funded by the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance. HMNS provides an opportunity for people to join the museum as members. Members receive a 12-month unlimited entry to permanent exhibit halls at the museum’s Sugar Land, Hermann Park, Morian Hall of Paleontology, the Hall of Ancient Egypt, and the Cullen Hall of Gems and Minerals.

HMNS members also enjoy member-only events and get a subscription to the museum’s quarterly magazine, the Naturally Curious. Members subscribed to the family level or above are also given a discount for Summer Camp at HMNS for children. Membership benefits vary at different membership levels.

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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.