The Martinsville-Henry County Historical Society’s new executive director Holly Kozelsky hopes to make the heritage center and museum a point of pride for the area.
“The hope is that we have strong community support to keep it going. We are definitely going to draw in tourism dollars, and it’s going to be a huge point of pride for this community,” she said.
While she believes the museum will definitely be on the state and regional level, Kozelsky said it will also have a national attraction “for the real die-hards on the subjects in which we specialize.”
Kozelsky became the executive director in early October last year. She applied for the role after leaving the Martinsville Bulletin in June.
The museum board of directors “told me they were looking for an executive director, and they encouraged me to consider it,” she said.
In this role, Kozelsky said her duties “are a little bit of everything.” She is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the museum, administrative business, creating exhibits, and public education.
“There’s a research aspect to it in that any museum or any cultural institution, apart from what it has at the moment, is always doing research or getting more information to expand the base of knowledge. In this case, its local history,” she said.
On a regular basis, Kozelsky said she researches local history to glean information for present and future dissemination and to help those who contact the museum with questions and inquiries.
Kozelsky also is responsible for fundraising for the museum.
“We have a major expansion going on. We have a national-level museum opening in addition to our present local history museum,” she said. “So, a big part of what I will be doing is fundraising, not only to help with the aspects of the new museum and this one, but to garner community support for ongoing operations.”
While she’s yet to officially open a new exhibit, Kozelsky said the museum has three new ones in the works. One focuses on local media like newspaper, television, radio and another is about home sewing “just like grandma used to do.”
Kozelsky said the third exhibit is about the nightlife in Martinsville and Henry County.
“That kind of started” when she worked to swap out some items in another exhibit, Kozelsky said.
“We have an exhibit of historical garments, and as I was changing out the historical garments, we got some neat, nice, goodlooking clothes from the ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s,” she said. To help put that in context, there will be information on Club Martinique and on the Paradise Inn in the exhibit.
“Two big nightlife spots in the area,” she said.
Kozelsky said the most surprising aspect of the executive director role is how long everything takes.
“In that ‘I am busy, busy, busy, constantly doing something,’ and at the end of the day I look back and I’m like, what did I do? I don’t have something to show.
“You know, it doesn’t immediately show the results of what I did. Whereas when I was at a newspaper, I was busting my butt all day long, but then you always see exactly what you did,” she said.
One of the most challenging parts of the position for Kozelsky was the creation of the museum’s new website.
“I thought I knew all about websites because I used and maintained different websites throughout the years, but those were websites that were already made for me, and I just maintained them,” she said.
For a long time, Kozelsky found creating a new website difficult and a major impediment. It wasn’t until Thanksgiving break with her sisters that “we all sat down, and they showed me a few things, and it was like the floodgates opened, ‘boom,’” she said.
Not only did she learn how to make a website, Kozelsky now enjoys doing it and adds new materials to the website daily.
She also finds a challenge in figuring out the design and lettering of the exhibits.
“Because we’re going to put up big boards with information for the exhibits. I know how to lay things out on my computer, and I know what the size will look like on page, but I don’t know how to lay it out on my computer and get the size I want for a huge, wall-sized board,” she said.
Kozelsky’s favorite part of the position is that she does things she likes to do all the time.
“I love working with people, and whether it’s the board of directors or we do social events, putting those together, being at them, the patrons that come in to see the museum, it’s a very social job, which I enjoy,” she said.
Kozelsky also enjoys the history-research aspect of the position as it allows her to continue to learn about the area.
“I love the creativity involved in things even such as the website or the exhibits,” she said.
While she had a huge learning curve transitioning into this role from a widely different field like journalism, Kozelsky said “I have to learn not only how to operate the museum, but I have to learn about the stuff inside our museum.
“For example, we’ve got one of the most significant gun collections, firearm collections, on the East Coast, and it’s going to be on display in the museum,” she said.
While this will be a tremendous tourism draw to the area, and the community’s already excited about it, Kozelsky, who’s never given a thought to guns in her life, said she now has to become an East Coast expert on 500 years of the evolution of firearms.
“I’ve been studying that a great deal,” she said.
It’s exciting to work in a significant and gorgeous building, Kozelsky said. Built in 1824, she believes the museum and former courthouse are a solid and permanent part of local history and heritage.
“It’s nice walking on hardwood floors. It’s good on the feet after years of cement and linoleum,” she added.
Kozelsky formerly worked for newspapers for 18 years where she filled all the roles in the newsroom, except for sports. Despite the career change she has not completely given up journalism as she still writes a weekly column for the Henry County Enterprise.
Kozelsky has a 14-year-old daughter who she lives with in the Dyers Store area in an over 100-year-old home.
“We have renovated it. I just got the roof put on, the porch was burned down in the ’70s, and we just put a porch back on. It’s been 10 years in that house. We have our chickens, our vegetable garden, we enjoy life out there in the county,” she said.
Kozelsky attends Mount Vernon Baptist Church and is a member of Garden Study Club.
Those wishing to donate to the museum can either come in and put money in the donation box or mail a check to 1 East Main Street Martinsville, VA, 24112.
There is also a donation portal on the museum’s website at mhchistoricalsociety.org.
