At Capitol Museum Services, Hillary Spencer drives the growth of client engagement and operations, providing comprehensive leadership and strategic oversight. Hillary focuses on delivering innovative and customized solutions that meet the unique needs of museums, cultural institutions, and educational organizations. With an emphasis on creating immersive experiences, she ensures the successful execution of exhibit installations, project management, and operational efficiency across a diverse range of projects.Hillary collaborates with museum professionals and stakeholders to advance museum design, exhibit content, and visitor engagement strategies, contributing to Capitol Museum Services' reputation as a premier provider in the museum sector.

Hired to write two key publications to be published in spring 2024 focusing on the impact and relevancy of children’s museums in contemporary learning.

Provided strategic leadership on the completion of a high-profile, global public arts project.

Engaged to provide benchmarking study and comprehensive organizational assessment.

Selected to project manage the significant capital renovation of the permanent gallery, providing strategic leadership to the Exhibitions and Education departments. Tasks included writing a comprehensive interpretive plan; developing new school programs; collaborating with the contract designer on gallery layout; and supervising the production and installation of all components.

Hired to financially re-establish and diversify historic regional museum that includes an early childhood education center, a planetarium, a historic collection, and a manatee rehabilitation facility. Achievements include:• Secured $547k state grant for establishment of new manatee rehabilitation center, expanding scope of service from being rehabilitation only to critical care as well and potentially increasing Florida’s animal care capacity by 10%. New facility expected to open in fall of 2022.• Strategic reorganization of museum, dismantling long established hierarchies and establishing a shift toward salary transparency and equity.• Established new earned revenue stream netting over $200k in the second half of 2021 alone, 2022 revenues reflecting an 80% increase over 2021.• 2021 and 2022 contributions, gift store and attendance all out preforming budget projects and matching or exceeding pre-Covid levels of engagement.• Establishment of new initiative where all new museum content is produced in both English and Spanish.• Expansion of core marketing focus to include families with children resulting in dramatic increase in memberships, participation and core revenue streams.• Radical re-imagining of museum’s marketing strategy to place higher priority on digital engagement.• Managed strategic planning process, new mission and vision to be announced at 75th anniversary Gala.

Administer $100,000 CARES Act grant, establishing writing tutor program for undergraduate art history and studio art students with particular focus given to ESL students.

Recruited to manage and re-orient a leading regional museum with two campuses. Achievements include radical expansion of community engagement with a new focus on diverse, multigenerational family centered experiences. Departed as part of emergency economic strategy during COVID. Responsibilities and accomplishments include:• Took lead on redesign of museum’s permanent galleries to focus on highlighting local industry and work force development while increasing integration of learning goals and play• Negotiated $240,000/year deal with major television production company as part of a 3-way contract with Nickelodeon• Signed contract with national educational partner to produce new full day educational environments with revenue share agreement worth $450,000/annually. The goal of this partnership is to provide flexible childcare during the COVID crisis while using the resources of the museum to enhance educational experiences.• Update digital strategies and interventions resulting in immediate increases in revenue and audience engagement. Online summer camp sales in February 2020 alone increased by $35,000.• Lead strategic task force work group, integrating community voices, staff concerns and board vision to create new Strategic Plan, resulting in a new mission to “Ignite a community of compassionate problem solvers through intentional and inclusive play.”• Established Race and Families series that focused on community and family dialogue around crucial issues. Topics included: Black Lives Matter; LGBTQ+ Identity, and Women’s Leadership. • Signed MOU with the South Carolina Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to host and develop an annual Latin Jazz fest, while simultaneously creating new museum experiences focusing on Latinx communities.• Partnered with Upstate Pride to host Greenville’s first LGBTQ+ family and youth centered Pride event. Monsters Ball opened Pride celebrations in 2019.

Opened the North American office of Nomad Exhibitions, establishing it as a top provider of traveling exhibitions in the region. Nomad Exhibitions is one of the industry’s leading design production and management firms that specializes in partnering with museums and cultural venues to create compelling touring exhibitions.

Led strategy and operations for the three business lines housed within department (Traveling Exhibitions, Licensing & Publishing, Planetarium Shows), supervising team of 40+ both onsite and remote, program budget of $6M (not including staff & facilities costs). Responsibilities and accomplishments include:• Worked closely with key business partners from across the museum industry placing AMNH travelling exhibitions at national and international venues and while co-developing new content.• Worked closely with CFO in ensuring profitability of program with gross income of over $8M, with average annual net income (profit) averaging between $1M and $2M from 2007 to 2018. • Personally secured over $2M in revenue in FY 2014 and $3M in FY 2015. • Key leadership role in multi-million dollar groundbreaking partnership between American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) and the Center of Science and Industry (COSI), Columbus Ohio. This partnership resulted AMNH’s first satellite galleries, including the opening of a permanent Dinosaur Gallery in 2017 and an AMNH Traveling Exhibition Hall in 2018.• Consulted Denver Museum of Nature and Science (DMNS) on business strategy for expanded temporary gallery space. DMNS aimed to diversify their programming and while reducing operational costs and increase ticket sales. The resulting partnership between AMNH and DMNS increased attendance significantly, placing DMNS on the top ten most visited museum list in 2016 with 1.7M visitors.

Responsible for $4M operating budget and staff of 10+ (designers, project managers, installation managers, registrars, A/V technicians and security personnel at both local and remote locations), and overall operational supervision for 16 internationally touring exhibitions from 1,500 to 10,000 square feet.• Selected Clients: Papalote Museo del Niño, Mexico City; Parque Explora, Medellín; Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria; Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris; Musée des Confluences, Lyon; National Museum of Natural Science, Taichung; The Field Museum, Chicago; Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles; Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto; Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland; Fernbank Natural History Museum, Atlanta• Selected Exhibitions: ¡Cuba!, 2016; The Secret World Inside You, 2016; Life at the Limits: Stories of Amazing Species, 2015; Pterosaurs: Flight in the Age of Dinosaurs; The Power of Poison, 2013; Our Global Kitchen: Food, Nature, Culture, 2012; Creatures of Light: Nature’s Bioluminescence, 2012; The World’s Largest Dinosaurs, 2011; Race to the End of the Earth, 2010; Traveling the Silk Road: Ancient Pathway to the Modern World, 2009; Extreme Mammals: The Biggest, Smallest, and Most Amazing Mammals of All Time, 2009; The Horse, 2008; Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids, 2007

Produced 5-year strategic plan for Exhibitions and Collections Department in preparation for significant museum expansion.

Project managed Conversations exhibition in which six visual artists reinterpreted the museum’s collections. Artists included: Kim Abeles, Lita Albuquerque, Tony Berlant, Paul McCarthy, Ed Moses, and John Valdez.

Contracted to design, produce, and install exhibition graphics for permanent and temporary galleries.

Selected by private collectors to open 20,000 sq ft museum and event space. Worked closely with architects on the design and build-out of custom gallery space. Hired, trained, and directly supervised museum gallery and front-line staff of 10+ while responsible for programming the museum’s galleries through inaugural year.• Selected Projects: On-Ramps: Transitional Moments in California Art, 2002; Capturing Light: Masterpieces of California Photography, 2002; Catherine Wagner: Cross Sections, 2003; California Design Biennial, 2003; ¡Pushale!, 2002; ravensworth (installation by Yoko Kanayama), 2002