Whether she’s acting as a social architect, a strategic facilitator or a hands-on helper moving art pieces, Sara Segerlin spends her days curating the chaos behind the scenes as director for the Gregg Museum of Art & Design.

Describe your role in shaping how the campus experiences art. My focus as a museum director is to get to know the community of students, staff and faculty to build a connective tissue between what excites people on campus and how the Gregg Museum can be a catalyst for collaboration.

When you are conceiving a brand-new exhibit, what do you look for? We want to be an innovative museum of the 21st century and think about new ways that museums can be a training ground for the next generation of leaders. How can the museum be a community space where the Gregg Museum can reflect various perspectives and stories? … The museum needs to take a community-centered approach and understand the audiences here at NC State.

What does it mean for a STEM-focused university to have a vibrant, integrated arts culture? I’ve discovered over the last two years at NC State that everybody has the desire to communicate science in a compelling and meaningful way that’s accessible to the public. The arts do that. The arts help communicate science and can also be that connection between science and relationship-building and emotions. 

How are you working to connect the museum with campus and students? Since I’ve started this role, the entire museum team has been conducting listening sessions with various student clubs and organizations across campus. We want the Gregg Museum to be known as a place for everyone to gather, to spend generous time renewing themselves in a museum environment. Student artists wanted to be connected more closely to the Gregg Museum, so we hosted the Arts NC State Student Art Sale on our lawn last year, with more than 70 students selling works of art, making over $30,000. It’s exciting to see students use the museum space as a way to explore their own entrepreneurship and the arts.  

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