Maja (Clark) Grajski Email & Phone Number

Honolulu, Hi, Us

Honolulu, Hawaii, United States

Honolulu, Hawaii, United States

As an executive leader and facilitator for non-profit teams, I guide the process for staff and board to work collaboratively in shaping strategic vision that results in greater community impact and trust, internally and externally. Our process is fueled by compassion, humor, and respect for individual and collective wisdom to face immediate and long-term challenges. My strength is in serving as a catalyst for mission-driven teams to grow capacity for creative problem-solving, healing divides and uniting communities with mind, heart and intuition.

Honolulu, Hawaii, United States

Principally focused on a mixed portfolio of individual, foundation, and corporate donors in support of TPL Hawaiʻi’s Aloha ʻĀina, Sustainable Hawaiʻi and Parks for People programs. Point person for the Corporate ‘Ohana program and special events, including friendraisers and an annual Community Impact Day with 100+ volunteers. Strong writing experience increased team capacity for excellence in and timeliness of grant applications, final reports and donor collateral.

Hōlualoa, Hi

Asked to serve by the BOD as a consultant post-departure to ensure continued optimal operations, including seamless succession planning, guidance for the Interim Executive Director, and establishing a grants management team.

Hawaiian Islands

Transformed the business model of a rural community arts center to function at a higher level of fiscal stability, programmatic strength and community engagement. Doubled annual revenue and grants portfolio, overseeing an operating budget >$900K, 2.5 acre campus and historic building stewardship. Repositioned organization as a regional leader and a place of convergence, adopting a “decentralized” model that shares agency with our region's diverse communities as fellow teachers, to learn and grow together. Led and implemented the strategic plan focused on capacity-building priorities of internal infrastructure, community engagement and partnerships/advocacy. Repositioned organization as a regional leader addressing systemic shortage of arts education and qualified instructors in area schools, and a contemporary arts exhibition program informed by local community and Kānaka Maoli cultural perspectives, in exchange with artists from across the state and around the world. Introduced and successfully guided the Board's adoption of the purpose-driven model assessing institutional relevance in the context of DEI, regional socio-economic challenges and potential partners to meet systemic community needs, including equitable access to the arts. Built a high-performance staff team and an engaged board by nurturing mutual respect, understanding and collaborative redefining of roles. Key to the Mill’s transformation was the groundwork laid in listening and honing clear, consistent messaging that staff, board and supporters shared and embodied to inform, inspire and grow with our community.

Greater Los Angeles Area

Led departmental reorganization and succession plan ensuring business continuity and seamless leadership transition; guided the launch of a 2-year IMLS-funded project for the rehousing, cataloging, digitization and online access of the Mark & Carolyn Blackburn Collection of Photography.

Greater Los Angeles Area

Relationship building and cross-functional project management were key skills in transforming the team responsible for the museum’s collection management database and digital asset management system into a responsive, high-performance, customer service-oriented department. Led with empathy and as an expert generalist to meet the data access needs and manage the expectations of 16+ curatorial departments, registrars, conservation, marketing, and executive staff, and more. Balanced the overarching goals of streamlining workflows and improving institutional digital literacy with the core need to uphold database integrity and museum cataloging standards in collaboration with CIDA team and key stakeholders.Highlights include the design and implementation of a digitization pilot project to assess funding needs; successfully leading the effort to secure project funding through a $215K Institute of Museum & Library Services grant award; and staying on as a consultant to help guide the implementation of the 2-year IMLS-funded project.

Honolulu, Hawai`I

Led with a holistic approach to stewardship that valued team-building, transparency and access to the museum collection of Islamic art, architectural elements, library, institutional and historical archives.• Managed annual budget of >$350K, consultants, interns, volunteers and 3 full-time staff. • Collaborated with curators, conservators and Operations staff in comprehensive surveys of the overall site and museum collection, scheduling high-priority conservation treatments, and deaccessioning non-essential collections • Coordinated logistics of Shangri La’s first (6-venue) traveling exhibition of museum objects, contemporary artwork, archival materials and film footage• Grew institutional capacity for access to the historical/institutional archives and library • Mitigated loss of/siloed institutional memory by leveraging museum collections database as a central resource for data on selected site stewardship and public program activities • Developed off-site exhibitions in collaboration with partnering libraries• Promoted Shangri La’s collection to new audiences in blog posts and local magazine articles

Designed and led data cleanup and conversion projects, collections inventories, disaster response training and storage improvement projects; coordinated access needs for visiting scholars, artists, and consulting conservators; and worked closely with IT and web design team to expand collections online search options.

Responsible for care of museum art collection with emphasis on maintaining stable environment for and minimizing corrosion of fragile collections. Rehoused, indexed and digitized historical archives collection of architectural drawings. Designed and implemented visitor surveys; researched and developed a collections management policy manual.

Master Of Library & Information Science (Mlis), Archives/Archival Administration

Nextgen 2012

Bachelor Of Fine Arts (Bfa), Fine And Studio Arts

Graduate Certificate, Museum Studies