WHEREAS, For eight years, Viki Sand has served as Executive Director and CEO of the Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent Museum. She brought to Atwater Kent Museum a proud record of experience and wisdom. Prior to joining Atwater Kent Museum, she was Executive Director of the Spellman Museum of Stamps and Postal History in Weston, Massachusetts, and the Shaker Museum and Library in Old Chatham; and
WHEREAS, During Viki Sand's tenure, the Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent Museum operations, partnerships and collaborations with City government, cultural partners, and the broader community have flourished. With the Museum's extraordinary collection as the foundation, Viki Sand has overseen the development of 19 exhibitions and 56 public programs providing historical perspective for contemporary issues including
Experience Philadelphia
! Featuring the world's largest map of the City;
Baseball in Philadelphia 1876-2004
;
The Chinese Restaurant in America
;
The Real Thing and Why It Matters
;
How Philly Works: Streets as Barometers of Urban Life
; and
So, what's the story about violence in Philadelphia
?; and
WHEREAS, The Philadelphia History Museum is completing construction of a $5.8 million renovation to the Museum building, added significantly to the 100,000 item Philadelphia History Collection, raised $750,000 to develop and outfit an off-site Collection Research Center to accommodate the entire collection, generated significant federal and private funds to support curriculum-based education programs for school students in all grades, produced an 18-minute DVD,
Philadelphia Experience
(2009) presenting 300 years of Philadelphia history, and participated in programmatic collaborations with the Free Library of Philadelphia, the National History Day Philly, and Quest for Freedom programs now included in the National Park Service Network to Freedom; and
WHEREAS, Viki Sand has worked tirelessly to enhance the facilities. She is among the leaders of museum professionals relating current historical scholarship to the lives of today's museum visitors. Viki will be missed by the untold thousands of citizens whose lives she has enhanced through her ongoing commitment to making the Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent Museum better for us all; now therefore
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That we hereby join the Board of Trustees and the staff of the Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent Museum in honoring and commending Viki Sand for her commitment, personal and professional interest in the Museum's well being. We wish her a retirement filled with happiness, good health and the joys of family and friends.
RESOLVED, That an Engrossed copy of this resolution be presented to Ms. Viki Sand as evidence of the high esteem and deep admiration and gratitude of this legislative body.
End