Alexandra Nicholis

Alexandra Nicholis is the curator for the Massillon Museum.  She holds a BA in art history from Kent State University and an MA in art history through the joint program at the Cleveland Museum of Art and Case Western Reserve University.  She has been with the Massillon Museum since 2001.  A selection of Nicholis’ exhibitions include Stark Naked Salon; Darkrooms in a Digital Age; Adaptations: Artwork Inspired by the Massillon Museum’s Permanent Collection; and Rediscovering William T. Mathews: Painter of Presidents. Her published material includes “Rediscovering William T. Mathews: Painter of Presidents,” American Art Review (August 2006); Adaptations exhibition catalog (August 2006); and “Digitization doesn’t have to be daunting,” Ohio Museums Association journal (March 2005).  Nicholis serves as adjunct faculty for Walsh University, teaching art history and museum studies courses.  She also serves on the Walsh University Advisory Board and as president of Soroptimist International of Canton/Stark County. 

Mandy Altimus Pond

Mandy Altimus Pond, the archivist for the Massillon Museum, began her museum career here in 2004. She graduated from Kent State University with a BA in History, Summa Cum Laude with honors.  Mandy is also a filmmaker, producing works for the Museum such as The Legacy of Steel, Adaptations, Seafaring Forefathers, Stark Naked Salon, and The Greatest Generation. She co-wrote and directed the recreation of the lost film from 1923, Prodigal Daughters for her senior honors thesis in 2005.  Mandy has incorporated many new technologies into the Museum’s exhibits, such as the cell phone audio tours for the Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition and Eclectic.Everyday.Elegant. The Massillon Museum Celebrates 75 Years. She has worked on a veteran’s oral history project to document and preserve peoples’ lives and experiences.  She has also worked to digitize the audio-visual archives (audio tapes, CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes, and films) for inclusion on the Museum’s website. In her spare time, Mandy enjoys performing with the improv comedy troupe, “Scared Scriptless.”

Margy Vogt

Margy Vogt spent 26 years at the Massillon Museum, working with the collections, public relations, design, and volunteers.  After a brief hiatus, she now focuses on public relations.  She has written and designed two local history books and co-authored and illustrated a third.  Vogt has had photographs and stories published in newspapers and in magazines such as Ohio Magazine, Western Reserve Magazine, Good Housekeeping, and trade publications.  In addition to local history speaking engagements, Vogt leads walking tours of downtown Massillon, historic Fourth Street, and Massillon Cemetery, and enjoys staging community events.  She currently serves on several boards—Massillon Area Chamber of Commerce, Massillon Public Library, Charity School of Kendal, Massillon Parks and Recreation, and Stark County Convention and Visitors Bureau—and chairs the Massillon/Westark Tourism Council.

Emily Vigil

Emily Vigil has been digitizing Henry Clay Fleming’s glass plate negatives for the “Faces of Rural America” project at the Massillon Museum.  Emily has worked in exhibit management and design since 2002.  She joined Massillon Museum staff in 2010, after relocating to northeastern Ohio from Charleston, West Virginia, where she worked as Exhibits Coordinator for the West Virginia Division of Culture and History. In addition to designing and implementing exhibitions, she also created over 200 document reproductions for the newly renovated West Virginia State Museum. Prior to that, she was gallery director at Marshall University’s Birke Art Gallery.  She earned an MFA in Painting and Drawing from Louisiana State University in 2003. 

Cristina Savu

Cristina Savu is a resident of Massillon, Ohio and a student at Walsh University in North Canton, Ohio. Cristina will graduate in August with a B.A. in History and a B.A. in Museum Studies. She interned at the Massillon Museum for one year under the curator, Alexandra Nicholis. She is currently taking classes at the Campbell Center for Historic Preservation in Mt. Carroll, Illinois. Cristina is one of the special project interns working on the "Faces of Rural America" Project.

Andy Preston
Andy Preston is a 2010 Malone University graduate residing in Canton, Ohio, with his wife Margaret. His future plans involve graduate study in the area of Early Modern English history. Currently, Andy is employed by Massillon Museum as a researcher for the upcoming Faces of Rural America exhibit. In his spare time, he enjoys carpentry, running, fishing, reading, and sleeping.  

Brian Donovan
Brian is a documentary filmmaker and designer who has worked with many clients including Hampton Inn, Old Navy, Procter & Gamble, Anheuser-Busch, and SAB Miller/Coors. Brian's background is in digital media design and design strategy consulting. He holds a BA in Visual Communication from Kent State University and is currently pursuing an MDM at the Institute of Design, IIT in Chicago. Some of his current documentary work includes "Empty Sidewalks", a film about modern life in the rust-belt, One Day On Earth, a film about a day in the life of a CTA "El train" conductor, as well as collaborating with the MassMu crew on "Faces of Rural America."


Christine Fowler Shearer

Christine Fowler Shearer, former executive director has worked in the Museum field

for over ten years.  She began her museum career as the first full-time executive director of the Cleveland Artists Foundation.  It was at this organization that Shearer became interested in researching and curating exhibitions on lesser known regional artists and trends.  She then moved to the Massillon Museum where she served as arts administrator and interim director before becoming executive director in 2003.  At both organizations, Shearer curated original exhibitions drawn from the permanent collection as well as artwork borrowed from other museum, galleries and private collections.  Shearer’s exhibitions have included Midwestern Visions of Impressionism; Breaking with Tradition: Ohio Women Painters 1870-1950; 1861-1865; Collective Ink; In the Garden; Transcended Memories; Framework of a Community: The Steel Industry in Stark County; Untrodden Paths: Contemporary Landscape Painters; William Glackens: Works and Process; Carl Gaertner: A Story of Earth and Steel; and The Poetics of Place: Charles Burchfield and the Cleveland Connection.  Shearer has been a contributor to a number of publications, including “Rediscovering Carl Gaertner” in Carl Gaertner: A Story of Earth and Steel (Cleveland Artists Foundation, 2000); “The Stage is Set” in Paul Travis (Cleveland Artists Foundation, 2002); “Steel: An Industrial Legacy” in Framework of a Community: The Steel Industry in Stark County (Massillon Museum 2004); “Breaking With Tradition: Ohio Women Painters, 1870-1950” in Breaking with Tradition: Ohio Women Painters 1870-1950 (Massillon Museum 2005); “Ohio Women Painters, 1870-1950” in American Art Review (June 2005); “Midwestern Visions of Impressionism” in Midwestern Visions of Impressionism (Massillon Museum 2007); and “Midwestern Visions of Impressionism” in American Art Review (August 2007).  Shearer received a Bachelor’s degree in Art History from Kent State University and a Master’s degree in Art History from the University of Notre Dame. Shearer serves as adjunct faculty for Kent State University’s Stark Campus where she teaches art history.  She also is the President of the Ohio Museums Association Board of Directors.  In 2008, Shearer was named one of the top 20 leaders under the age of 40 for Stark County.