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Elise Maragliano Brings Her Love Of Museums To The Kate

Elise Maragliano credits her love of museums to her upbringing in Germany.

“I think that definitely played a role. You can be looking a medieval building; then go to a modern art museum, and it’s like half a mile away,” says Elise with a laugh. “My parents, whenever we had time off, would drag me to another historical site or a museum or a church.”

The trips paid off. Now the museum coordinator for the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center (The Kate) on Main Street in Old Saybrook, Elise eventually became an anthropology major, earning her PhD from the Graduate Center at the City University of New York, and teaching at Southern Connecticut State University. She has loved museums her whole life.

She brings that love of museums to The Kate as museum coordinator for the newly unveiled museum dedicated to its namesake actress. While The Kate has always had a small museum, it recently was expanded after receiving a gift of Hepburn’s possessions from her grandniece. Following a fundraising campaign, the space doubled its display area to approximately 13,000 square feet. The new space was opened to the public with an reopening ceremony at the end of June.

“We had a good number of people both on the political side and also on the trustees and patron side,” Elise says. “We’ve definitely had a lot more people come in since we reopened, too, which has been nice,” says Elise.

With an expanded museum, there was a need for a person who could help manage all the pieces. Elise started her role recently and says that for her duties, “I do a little bit of everything.” Sometimes that’s cataloging new items, other times it’s rehousing and redoing displays, and a lot of times it’s keeping an eye out for new articles that become available for display.

“We make sure that everything is preserved, stored, and displayed in a way that conserves it,” she explains.

Beyond the display items, Elise is also responsible for working with programing. She’s particularly excited about a lecture by Kevin Conroy scheduled for Friday, Aug. 7. Conroy, a tennis instructor who taught Hepburn the sport in the ‘80s will present the program “The Car, The Court, and The Canoe.” He is expected to share items from his personal collection and reminisce about his time spent coaching Hepburn as well as other stories from their time together. Tickets to the show are available from The Kate’s website.

“I also do an educational camp for kids,” Elise adds. “I wear a lot of hats so I’m definitely busy.”

Though she has only been on the job a few weeks, Elise says she already is enjoying her role.

“I love how many people come in and either have personal stories about seeing her around town or people who have stories about how important she was in their life,” she says. “You hear that a lot from some of the older people who come in.”

However, it is not just the older people who feel a connection to Hepburn.

“It’s also amazing how many younger people come in who say they’re learning about her and are inspired by her today. It’s powerful to see the reach she still has,” says Elise.

Before working at The Kate, Elise worked in various museums including the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

“I worked in the education department and the anthropology department,” Elise says, adding that there are many exciting aspects of working in a museum. “One part is you’re working with the artifacts themselves which is always exciting. The other great thing is you see people come in and have that moment of reflection.”

Elise was born in Germany and moved around quite a bit as a kid. “As military brat I lived all over,” Elise says.

It was while working in New York that she met her husband who was from Connecticut, and the couple eventually moved and settled in Westbrook.

When she’s not working at The Kate, Elise can be found staying active running, doing yoga, skiing and snowboarding, taking piano lessons, and spending time with her family.

“I’ve been coming to The Kate for the past nine years so it’s one of my favorites, and I felt that way even before I worked here.”