New Reach director is listening, reaching out

When Rosanna Sharpe was a little girl, she’d sit on her mother’s lap and watch her draw.

“She had a go-to sketch she would do. It was always this woman. I thought, ‘I wish I could draw like that,” Sharpe recalled.

That time with her mother ignited an early love of art. But Sharpe also had a mind for math and science, and as she grew older it seemed that’s where her life would go.

Then in college, she walked through the art department on her way to a physics class.

“Something spoke to me. The energy. The displays. People with paint, canvases,” Sharpe said. “I thought, ‘I’ll take an art class to relieve the stress of physics and math and whatnot.’ I never really looked back.”

Sharpe, 53, went on to forge an impressive career in the art and museum world, with positions across the country.

She recently took over as executive director of the Reach in Richland, an interpretive center dedicated to telling stories of the region’s land, culture, history and people.

She’s excited to join the Reach and the community.

“I feel like I’m coming back full circle,” she said, noting she spent part of her childhood in Eastern Washington.

Sharpe replaces Lisa Toomey, who shepherded the center from a conceptual project to a brick-and-mortar facility.

Toomey retired in December. Nick Ceto, a former Reach official, filled in as interim director.

Sharpe was selected for the permanent post from a pool of five finalists — praised for her experience, her personal touch and her ability to guide and shape the center into the future.

“The board is very happy with the choice we’ve made,” said Dan Boyd, president of the Richland Public Facilities District Board, which oversees the Reach.

Sharpe is “very level-headed. She’s open to people. She’s easy to talk to, easy to interact with,” he said.

And she has the skills and knowledge base to lead the center, Boyd said.

“She’s forgotten more about museums than I’ll ever learn,” he said, adding that, “I think this allows the Reach an opportunity to go to a new level.”

Sharpe inherits a facility that’s had some big successes and also some big challenges.

The effort to build the Reach started years ago, not long after President Bill Clinton established the 196,000-acre Hanford Reach National Monument in 2000.

At first, a larger facility at Columbia Point south was envisioned. But problems with the site sprang up, and fundraising slowed as the recession hit and public confidence dropped.

Eventually, the project was revived with a scaled-back vision and new leadership. The center opened in the summer of 2014 at the west end of Columbia Park.

It’s proven to be a popular attraction, with a full slate of indoor and outdoor exhibits and features, education and tour programs and other offerings.

Like many similar institutions, especially those just starting up, it’s also experienced tight finances. In the last year or so, officials have cut hours, laid off some staff and stepped up fundraising to help.

This year’s budget totals about $800,000.

Sharpe said she’s in the process of listening, observing and reaching out to the community to understand the Reach and its needs.

Among her first priorities is developing a strategic plan.

“We have a moment, things are stabilizing and we can start thinking about (what’s next),” she said.

“Having a clear focus and a strategic plan that identifies the major projects that the museum needs to be engaged in, the initiatives that create a stronger organization” — that’s vitally important, she said, adding that, “You have to have a financial plan that’s aligned with that as well.”

Sharpe is no stranger to the dry side of the Cascades.

A self-described “Army brat,” her father was stationed in Yakima when she was a little girl. The family then moved to the Tacoma area, when her father was assigned to what’s now Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

Sharpe considered following her father into the Army, briefly attending the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

But in the art and museum world, she found a perfect fit.

She earned a bachelor’s in arts administration from Long Island University and a master’s in museum studies from Syracuse University.

She was a registrar and curatorial assistant at the Tacoma Art Museum, art gallery director at Marywood University in Scranton, Pa., manager of the traveling exhibition program and collections at the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle and director of curatorial affairs at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma.

She most recently worked as executive director of the Northwest African American Museum in Seattle.

An avid traveler, she’s been all over the world — even spending a year teaching yoga in Honduras.

Sharpe has a 25-year-old daughter who’s also in the art world. She’s a recent graduate of The Art Institute of Seattle, where she studied interior design.

Sharpe’s father has passed away, but her mother still lives in the Tacoma-area home where Sharpe spent much of her childhood.

Since starting the Tri-City job in April, Sharpe has been reaching out and making connections in the community.

The center is an important resource and institution, she said.

“It’s been tended to well,” Sharpe said.

“I’m here to stay focused on the work and the mission. I’m here in service of the Reach. I don’t come with an agenda, (except) the one defined by the Reach’s work. That’s what I’m dedicated to. I’m willing to go the distance.”

This story was originally published May 20, 2017 at 2:14 PM with the headline "New Reach director is listening, reaching out."