Peter Wong
Supervisory Park Ranger - Education
National Park Service -- Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island Immigration Museum
Statement of Interest:
As someone who looked to work at museums, now, more than fifteen years ago, NYCMER has always served as an important resource for networking, employment, and professional development. Standing as a mid-career professional, I want to serve and provide guidance for the next generation entering the field. I want to help our cultural institutions look at different strategies to make an impact in our community. More specifically, I want to explore ways that we can bridge the inequities brought on by the pandemic the past two years and work to bring museum professionals together for supportive problem-solving and networking. Currently, I bring a wealth of experiences working at smaller institutions (Tenement Museum) to managing larger, iconic sites (Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island). I hope to use these skill sets to bring about more sustainable improvements for our profession as a whole.
Goals for NYCMER:
While on the NYCMER Board, I hope to work with the committee to find ways to monitor how the pandemic continues to affect arts and culture organizations. With visitor demands shifting almost on a daily basis (New Jersey schools have been approved to go on field trips, as an example), I hope to utilize the NYCMER Board as a connective tissue/hub to help the cultural organizations in our area.
Professional Experience:
Peter Wong is the Supervisory Park Ranger in Education at the Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island Immigration Museum. In this role, he has created and implemented programming for the over 600,000 students who visit the site annually. His most notable successes include The Journey, an immersive activity where students “get processed” as newly-arrived immigrants at Ellis Island and the “Ranger in the Classroom” program which helps teachers bring the history of immigration and liberty into schools in the New York City area. Peter’s most recent project, Streets Paved with Gold, is an upcoming exhibit that helps visitors reflect on their stories of immigration.