Crystal Bridges Hires Four, One To Retire

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art has added four new employees to its Museum Relations team.

Also, Facilities Director David Burghart has retired after spending three years overseeing the museum’s construction process.

Randy Graham was chosen as the museum’s group tours manager; Anne Jackson has joined the development division as development coordinator; Alison Nation has joined the communications division as project coordinator; and Nathan Pollet joins as manager of special events.

Graham, a Bella Vista resident, is Crystal Bridges’ group tours manager. Graham’s charge is to organize, staff, facilitate and promote group tours to Crystal Bridges. Since its opening, the museum has hosted more than 350 groups and expects at least another 111 groups before the end of the calendar year. Graham has worked as a group tour manager, including leading group tours in Branson, Missouri; serving as director of parks and recreation in Lamar, Missouri; and working as a small business owner and student minister. He is a graduate of East Texas Baptist University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Jackson comes to Crystal Bridges from the Single Parent Scholarship Fund of Northwest Arkansas, Inc., where she served as development director since 2008. Jackson holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism, advertising, and public relations from the University of Arkansas. At Crystal Bridges, she will coordinate a wide range of integrated development projects related to the identification, research, cultivation, solicitation and stewardship of sponsors and donors for the museum.

Nation has recently transitioned into the role of project coordinator for the museum’s communications division. In this role, she will be the first point of contact for the initiation of all communications projects including those of a creative, marketing, or public relations nature. Nation has been with Crystal Bridges since December, 2008, serving as administrative assistant for education and then as senior administrative assistant for the Art and Education department. Previously, Nation was the Creative Director at YouCAN!’s Community Imagination Studio in Fayetteville. She holds a bachelor’s of fine arts degree in Studio Arts with a minor in art history from the University of Oklahoma, and a master of fine arts degree in ceramics and sculpture from the University of Arkansas.

Pollet is the manager of special events at Crystal Bridges, overseeing both internal and external events, as well as rentals of museum facilities. Pollet spent 15 years with the Disney Company, including five years as the house manager for Michael Eisner, the former CEO, and three years as an Imagineer in the company’s theme park design branch. Pollet holds a bachelor of communications degree with emphasis in protocol from Palm Beach Atlantic University, Palm Beach, Florida; and a master’s degree in landscape architecture from Cal Poly Pomona, Pomona, California.