Location: Upstate

  • Kathy Phillips

    Kathy Phillips

    “Stay true to your creative path—there are remarkable opportunities waiting for those who persevere.” 

    Kathy Phillips is an accomplished Creative Director, Chief Curator, and textile expert with over 25 years of experience in the home, apparel, and quilting/craft industries. Currently serving as the Chief Curator at Springs Creative’s Baxter Mill Archives, Kathy leads the creative development of a vast collection of over 1 million antique documents, textiles, hand-painted artwork, and rare European textile books.

    Interview

    Transcript

    Kathy Phillips 0:00 

    Hi, I’m Kathy Phillips. I’m originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. But I have been down in South Carolina since 1998. So, I am now living in what’s called Indian Land, which is like 20 miles south of Charlotte. 

    Emma Plutnicki 0:12  

    Perfect. So, what do you do for work? What is your official job title? 

    Kathy Phillips 0:16  

    So, I was thinking about that because I got a couple of jobs going on right now. As you know, in the career field, I think nowadays, you end up having more than one job title. So, I’m actually a Chief Curator. Well, I’m a creative director for the retail side of Springs Creative because we only manufacture fabric for like the big retail shops, like Joann Fabric, Walmart, and Hobby Lobby. And then I’m also the Chief Curator over Baxter Mill Archive. I look over and I can tell you what that’s all about us. But that’s pretty much what you could say Creative Director/ Chief Curator. And then anything else? 

    Emma Plutnicki 0:56  

    Yeah, amazing. So, how long have you been doing that or something like that? 

    Kathy Phillips 1:00  

    So, I moved down here in ‘98. So, I would say I’ve been, you know, I started off as a textile designer here in South Carolina working for the Springs Creative family, which is one of the largest manufacturing companies, like I said, the textile industry, creating textiles for the home industry. So, I would say, like I would design shower curtains, towels, rugs, tops of beds, bedding, pillows, everything you name it, we created. And then I guess I left for like four years because I went to China when everything went over to China, I had left and went to work for a Chinese company and worked with them for four years. And I designed textiles there. And I was the creative director for them. JLA Home. And I did that for about four years. Then I begged for my job back because working for a Chinese company was really rough. And then I came back here. And so now I’m working with Springs Creative doing the same thing, textile design, and a little bit of everything, but I am kind of done. I mean, I still do textile design. But I do that now on my side, but I’m more of a director now. What, like giving everybody direction on how to start for the product. 

    Emma Plutnicki 2:08  

    Yeah, amazing. So how did you end up in this field? How did you know that it was a field that you could enter? 

    Kathy Phillips 2:15  

    Yeah, it’s funny because I was born in a creative family. So, my mother was, I guess, what you would call now a maker, creative. Like, think of her as like she was Martha Stewart in her time. She always encouraged me with my artistic ability to pursue something artistic. And, I had a brother who was an architect, my other brothers are fine artists, and my sister is an interior designer. So, we’re all, and my father’s a chef. So, we’re all kind of very creative, but I love to sew. So, I’ve been sewing all my life. And I took all these sewing classes, you know, back in the day when they had [home economics], and so I love fashion, so I was gonna get into fashion design. And when I went to school, I felt like I didn’t fit into the fashion design students. And I wanted something a little bit different. And I found out about costume design and theater. 

    So, I majored in Costume Design. And I have a Master’s in Costume Design. And so, I worked in Connecticut for about 10 years in that field of designing costumes for, like, Off-Broadway and stage theater in Hartford Stage Company. And so, I worked in that field, and I loved it, absolutely loved it.  

    And then Casual Corner, which is a fashion company, found me, and they said, it was a job opening for textile design, which I didn’t even know what that was. But what they did was they said, this is a computer; it’s a Wacom tablet, and we’re going to show you how to do textile design on a computer. Because, before that, we were called board artists; we would literally paint and everything textile design. So that’s how I kind of got into textile design. I also did sweater design with them. I think that’s what’s really interesting. I felt like, you know, as a designer, as an artist, once you know that you’re good at it, I guess you can design anything as long as you know what the parameters are, you know, and say okay, this is a sweater, you have to, you know, this is how you have to design for a sweater, this is how you have to design for a shower curtain, you know, certain scales and for a window. And once you know all the, you know, the, I guess the, the rules, you know, you can basically design anything but textile design. I didn’t even know this existed. And it’s funny because a lot of students today I’ll have come in here, a lot of college students, even high school students, they’re artists, they want to be artists, designers, and they didn’t even know textile even existed or surface design. So, they don’t really teach it or you don’t learn a lot about it. And so people just fall into it. 

    And so a lot of my interns ended up taking this career because I hired a girl who was an illustrator for, you know, who studied to be an illustrator. And then I taught her, you know, the rules of textile design, and now she’s been hired here and she’s been doing textile design. And one of my graphic designers actually does sign designs. He was craving designs for, you know, large signs for corporations, and I was looking for somebody who knew [Adobe] illustrator really well. And so now he is my designer for, like, Marvel, we have those licenses. So, we have Marvel, Disney, Nintendo, you name it, so we design fabrics for that. So again, I taught Nate the rules of learning textile design in Illustrator. And you know, this is Disney, this is what they need. Now he’s a textile designer, you know, so, a lot of people were surprised, like, I didn’t even know this existed. 

    Emma Plutnicki 5:30  

    Yeah, that’s cool. So, nowadays, what is your typical day look like? Are you more managing or what? What is typical? 

    Kathy Phillips 5:38  

    Every day’s a different day, and that’s what I love about it. It’s not so corporate, you know, I’m still in the corporate world. But every single day is different. Actually, the Baxter network, I’ve opened Chief Curator with that it’s over probably 1 million pieces of antique archives of like from all over the world. And we use it as a library, we invite designers, retailers, like, anthropology, to come here and post things for their art and for their line, you know, whether it’s apparel or home. It’s like kind of just a really big inspiration library. And we’re in the move. We’re in the middle of a move across the street. And so, I’ve been packing, I’ve been organizing, that’s like that part I’m also working with I don’t know if you guys know Fashion Snoops. It’s a trend forecasting company. And so they’ll give me all the trends that they’re working on. And I’ll go into the archives, and I’ll pull things for them for the Trend Report. So I’ve been working on that, like for the last three days in that. And then, on the other side of retail, we have big Hobby Lobby meetings. So, working with the designers there, making sure you know the designs look good and printing out everything that we’re going to present to the Hobby Lobby customers. So yeah, it’s different every day, which I love. Yeah. 

    Emma Plutnicki 6:48  

    Keep it exciting. 

    Kathy Phillips 6:50 

    Yeah. 

    Emma Plutnicki 6:51  

    So, throughout your career, have you had a specific moment or project that you’ve created that kind of resonated with you or had a significant impact on your life? Maybe it’s a design. Maybe it’s a project. 

    Kathy Phillips 7:04  

    Oh, a little bit of everything. So there’s, it’s called the Spring Maid. It’s a brand that Springs Creative owns. And the challenge was how to revamp it because it was like 1940’s and was kind of old, you know, and they wanted to kind of revamp it and rebrand it and make it something special. So, I was on a team of three other people. So, I was the creative director. We had salesperson, marketing and merchandising. And the four of us came up with what the plan was to do this. And it was fun because I got to go and photograph all the designs. So, I was overall about designs, and it ended up in Target, and it was just like literally a 24-foot modular, so it was kind of neat, taking my family, my kids and go, Mom did this, you know, and so that was really neat. And it ended up being in Target all, all doors of Targets, so it landed there. So that was that was pretty cool. 

    And then I guess what ended up happening, was this was all designed down in South Carolina. And then they wanted to move the brand to New York, they were moving everything to New York, because New York designs better than anybody else or something. But anyway, when that happened, Target said, this doesn’t look like what it was because they hired all the new people. And then, it just didn’t go anywhere after that. But so, launching that Spring Maid brand was pretty cool. I really enjoyed that. And I think my other things are, so I do my own fiber art. I designed art quilts, but they’re so like a cow, for instance. And I’ll paint it and then a thread painted on the on the sewing machine. And when I did that, I actually I entered it in a contest; I won first place in the quilt show. So, that was pretty cool. So you know things like that. Modes of accomplishments. But that’s just something I like to do on the side. When I get home at night. I still create and do my own stuff. 

    Emma Plutnicki 8:48  

    Yeah, that’s awesome. I love that. And so, you said you moved to South Carolina in 1998, right? So, when you first came, how did you kind of get into the scene? Were there any like events that you went to or organizations that you joined to network and kind of build yourself in the area or anything that you know of today? 

    Kathy Phillips 9:07  

    Yeah, well, you know, today, it’s so different in ’98 compared to now because now there’s so much more social media, there’s a lot of things that you can follow and listen to a lot of podcasts and things like that. Back then. I think I was more driven by my career. I kind of like that I just worked a lot like that. That was your way into getting to know people. We traveled to a lot of shows I would go to New York and set up showrooms, and so I think it was just knowing other people in the business, you know, and I only have I had a two-year-old child then, so it wasn’t really I wasn’t able to really get out into the scene. But nowadays, what I do, I definitely follow a lot of things on Instagram I follow. I listened to a lot of podcasts and read a lot of books. And kind of just like I like to say I find my tribe. Uh, you know, I like to look for my tribe and kind of, like, follow groups that are, I mean, at the fiber arts group, and I’m going to knit Quilt Guild a couple of those. And I go to those now all the time and things like that. And I’m always taking classes I still, I just feel like you never stopped learning. I recently… there’s a fiber arts class in Stuart, Florida, Aya Fibers Art Studio. And I’ve tried to take one of those once a year, and I learned shibori dyeing, I’ve learned indigo pruning, I’ve learned surface design, and it just I’m always trying to, like improve my skills. Even at this stage, I just love doing it, you know. 

    Emma Plutnicki 10:39 

    Oh, that’s perfect. So, along with continuing to educate yourself and learn new skills. Is there any other skills that you think that you have that really help you in your job? Maybe it’s like organization or creativity, like specific skills that help? 

    Kathy Phillips 10:53  

    Yeah, creativity is the number one thing. I think everybody is creative. I think it’s also organization-like; it’s funny because I remember my professor back in grad school, and I didn’t get it then. And I kind of was mad when she said; she had this little accent, she would be she’s Argentina, she goes, Kathy 80%- 20% is design. 80% is everything else. And I’m like, what, you know, I want 100% design. But, when you get into corporate and when you start going out there and making your own career, I realized she was so right, because like 20% is really designed. 80% is marketing. It’s organization; it’s just communication; there’s so much more, and really, 20% is designed. 

    And then I was listening to podcasts, and they were saying that you know, when you look on online, or like when you look at Instagram, or you see these artists who really, really are not good, but they’re so well known, like how they, how they get there, and when you have a really good artist, but they’re not well-known something like that, but it’s really marketing, and like if, if you have good marketing skills, and you want to become a designer, you want to become an artist, you have to know how to sell yourself. So, I think, and I love marketing, you know, and so I think marketing is a really good skill to have. And I encourage students who are artists to take a marketing course because I think that’s very important for anyone to know because now, I have to market. You know, I have to sell our product to different designers in this Backstream archive, I’m in the middle of trying to market it, and trying to find my customers. And so, I’m trying to figure out unique ways to do Instagram and social media. I’m starting to write blogs, you know, and Chat GPT is my best friend. Yeah, love that person. 

    Emma Plutnicki 12:38  

    Amazing. So, just as we wrap up, along with marketing yourself and learning that background, is there any other advice that you can recommend to people who are trying to break into a field like yours? 

    Kathy Phillips 12:50  

    Yeah, I feel like it, whether it’s this field or any kind of creative or artistic field, I feel, you know, going through the years, I always hear people’s stories about always, like I would do. I always liked I would go to high school, and they would let me speak in front of the art students. And I said that I’m here to say that you can make a living being an artist and, and successful and I guess some people think success is being famous, or how many likes and all that kind of stuff. But I feel like it’s not really that it’s; I have a really big paycheck, raised a family, and my son’s graduated from Vet school. I mean, I make good money, being through the career that I have as an artist, and I feel that you can be an artist; you have to work very hard at it and be passionate about it. But if you’re passionate, and you’re driven. 

    I just feel like, like, there’s so many paths of being an artist or designer in the creative field that you do your research and look, you know, especially nowadays, you can look online and read good books, and I have a good book art that we are by Marian Showman. It’s about making your life as an artist, you know, making a living and making a good career, and I just feel like, you know, you just follow your path, and there’s some, there’s good opportunity out there for creative and artistic people. And it’s not just art, you know, you can be a shoe designer, you can be a surface designer, you can create art that’s on any surface, you know, whether it’s like calendars and in, I don’t know, like paper goods and wrapping paper. And that’s all surface design, like anything that has a pattern on it was created by somebody and if you want that field, then I would say no Photoshop and Illustrator and know how to create a repeat, you know, pattern. That’s probably your top thing. You know, you just have a good portfolio to show customers. 

    And I think, one of the good things to tell somebody is I would be persistent when you if you’re really interested in a company that you want to work for and you kind of send them your resume. You send them your resume, and you talk to them or whatever. Follow up. Be a pain in the butt. Because I, you know, as a creative director, I get so busy, and I’ll forget about somebody, and then all of a sudden they’ll send me an email and then I might have a project going oh, again, well, hey, are you available right now? Can I use you right now? It is about being persistent in front of that person as much as you might think you’re being a pain. I think I love seeing somebody be persistent, because then that tells me that they’re passionate about what they want. I had one girl who couldn’t get a hold of me in my email. So, she just showed up. I mean, she just showed up in my office. And I was like, someone says, so, and so is here, and I’m like, I don’t even know who this girl is, and she goes, I was trying to get in touch with you. And I really love working here. Do you have any kind of internship or something like that? And I was like, oh my god, I’m so impressed that you just showed up, you know? And so anyway, so she comes in every like, now she’s at SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design). And now, she’ll come on Christmas break and things like that. And help in turn, you know, so? Yeah. 

    Yeah, and don’t compare yourself to anybody. Just be you. That’s one thing. I think about social media because I like it. I look. Oh, that person is so good. Like, I’ll never be like that. And like, that’s the only downfall I think social media is like you got to just like I tell my kids, you be you. You are you, and that’s all you should worry about. Not worry about whatever anybody else thinks; you just have got to do you and find you. So yeah. 

    Emma Plutnicki 16:23  

    For sure. That’s great advice. Thank you so much. 

  • Kathryn Lawrie

    Kathryn Lawrie

    “Focus on what you love, focus on what makes you happy. What makes you wake up in the morning?” 

    Kathryn Lawrie is the VP of Marketing at Springs Creative, and their newly spun-out company Springs Digital. She focuses on leads and revenue generation and handles corporate marketing and corporate communication for the company.

    Interview

    Transcript

    Kathryn Lawrie   

    I’m Kathryn Lawrie, and I currently am in Rock Hill, South Carolina, which today is somewhat considered a suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina, and I’m originally from South Carolina. I actually was born and raised in between, well, really, starting in Pawleys Island and then Columbia. And then, I’m a Winthrop University graduate. I moved away from Rock Hill and just happened to be back in my alma mater city, so. 

    Haley Hansen   

    That’s really one of the fun things about South Carolina, you ask someone where they’re from and they always have, “here’s where I am now, here’s where I was from originally.” 

    Kathryn Lawrie   

    But South Carolina born and raised, I am a Grit and proud of it. 

    Haley Hansen   

    Can you please tell me what you do for work and where you are currently working from? 

    Kathryn Lawrie   

    Yes. So, I am currently in Rock Hill, South Carolina, I am the VP of Marketing for, really my focus is on leads and revenue generation, but I handle all the corporate marketing, corporate communications and everything for the company as well. 

    Haley Hansen   

    And the name of the company is… 

    Kathryn Lawrie   

    Springs Creative, Springs Creative. But interestingly enough, we just spun out a separate company. So Springs Creative is a very robust moniker with a very long history in textiles. The Springs name has been around for more than 120 years. And it’s still a family owned and run business. There’s many divisions underneath that Springs Creative moniker, and just recently, we spun out one of those divisions into a totally separate company. So now I’m really kind of straddling two separate companies, if you will, and that includes Springs Creative and Springs Digital. And you could almost talk about one of our divisions, the Baxter Mill Archive Design Center as a separate company as well. So it’s kind of an umbrella of brands, if you will. 

    Haley Hansen   

    Yeah, I saw on your guys’s website that you were started in like, the 1800s by Samuel Elliott White, I think it was? 

    Kathryn Lawrie   

    Right. 

    Haley Hansen   

    I remember reading about him in my history class. 

    Kathryn Lawrie   

    Really? 

    Haley Hansen   

    Yeah. 

    Kathryn Lawrie   

    Very cool. Yeah, we are, we are right here in cotton country on the textile track, no doubt. 

    Haley Hansen   

    How long have you been working there? 

    Kathryn Lawrie   

    So in one seat or another, one hat or another, about 18 years. I actually started with a different division that was a subsidiary of Springs, it was called Scene Weaver. And it was a textile business, but very, very much based on like, gift and specialty independent accounts. So we sold to, like, 5000 mom and pop shops, like Main Street stores, gift stores and boutiques around the US, and did some private label development for some of the major outdoor companies like Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s, Gander Mountain and Tractor Supply and those guys. So that’s really where I began my career in textiles, in product development and in marketing. And over the years, that business was slowly consolidated into Springs as the parent company, and then I’ve assumed multiple roles and kind of gone up, down, and sideways across the ladder over those years. 

    Haley Hansen   

    How did you end up in that field? You said that was where you started in textiles, how did you get there? 

    Kathryn Lawrie   

    So that’s an interesting story. I actually studied art at Winthrop. And I had a double minor in art history and psychology, I was very interested in pursuing a career in art therapy during the time that I was in school. But when I got out of college with that student loan debt, it was quickly time to go to work. So when I moved away from Rock Hill I went back to Columbia, and was kind of working some different jobs here and there, I was in a jewelry business for quite a while, which I really loved because I loved the customer interaction of just, you know, being customer facing. But there was also a full time jeweler at this particular retailer, and so I was really able to learn a lot from him and bring some of my skills from college to that opportunity. 

    Kathryn Lawrie   

    I realized that I liked working with my hands and liked that creative practice and almost wanted to sit in the jeweler seat more than I wanted to be on the sales floor. So I just decided that I wasn’t really using my degree to its full potential and that there was something else out there for me and I walked away from the jewelry job. And, to be quite honest, for a couple of months there I was walking around town handing out my resume to every art gallery and museum and graphic design contact that I could make and basically saying, “I have a degree in unemployment. Can you help me?” Because I wasn’t sure where I was going next. And I wasn’t sure what my niche was really going to be. And I just happened to meet a fabulous graphic designer who was running her own studio and she said “well I don’t need any help right now, but I’ve actually got someone that I’m doing some work for who may be interested.” 

    Kathryn Lawrie   

    And that’s how I got connected at Scene Weaver, I started in the graphics department and was really focused on the metadata and tagging of all of the graphics files, and how to resize and rescale things and just maintaining that graphics archive. And slowly but but surely, I got more involved and ingrained and like the graphics aspect of it. And that kind of came to developing logos and branding and packaging. And along the way, I really honed my skills in Adobe Photoshop and the Adobe Suite. And yeah, that just kind of like, set the trajectory for my career. So I mentioned I’ve kind of climbed the ladder, the old American Dream way, and just started in product development. But then that evolved into this packaging and more of a marketing role. And then I established a marketing department for that small company. And that gave me the experience of building e-commerce websites, both B2B and D2C, and then what those marketing strategies looked like, and with my hands still on the pulse of product and product development, I was able to take multiple trips to China and visit factories, and it’s been a very lucrative and fulfilling career for me. And I never knew this was where I would be, nor that it would bring me back to Rock Hill, South Carolina, but I couldn’t be happier to be here. 

    Haley Hansen   

    It sounds like a really good mix of the customer facing stuff and the hands-on art stuff you said you enjoyed. 

    Kathryn Lawrie   

    Absolutely, absolutely. I found my happy balance. 

    Haley Hansen   

    That’s awesome. What was the biggest adjustment or challenge that you faced in starting your current role? 

    Kathryn Lawrie   

    Current role, like present day, I would say it’s probably just the, you know, as I described this company earlier, it’s somewhat segmented. I don’t really want to say fragmented, but definitely segmented. And so there’s a lot for me to, there’s a lot going on in the company, for me to really keep my hand on the pulse and make sure that, you know, as my role in Shared Services, that I am connecting the dots between the divisions and keeping everyone engaged in communication and keeping our communication flowing to all of those respective teams, versus having these very siloed departments. So I would say that that’s probably my greatest opportunity in the seat I’m in today. 

    Haley Hansen   

    Making sure no one’s wandering off on their own. 

    Kathryn Lawrie   

    That’s right. 

    Haley Hansen   

    Can you please walk me through, like, your typical workday? Like what you did yesterday, maybe? 

    Kathryn Lawrie   

    I don’t know if I even remember what I did yesterday! I think half of my to do list from yesterday moved over to today. So it’s been one of those weeks. Let’s see, this week, we have been focused on relaunching our websites. So if you went to springscreative.com, you should definitely check out springs-digital.com. 

    Haley Hansen   

    That was the one that you emailed us? 

    Kathryn Lawrie   

    Yes, I think so. 

    Haley Hansen   

    Yeah, I checked that. 

    Kathryn Lawrie   

    We just launched that one last week, just in time for really follow up to High Point Market and our team going to the Interwoven Market, which they just returned from today. And then simultaneously, been running kind of parallel path, have had a team in the digital division working on that website build. And we also have a team working on the Springs Creative rebuild, because now that Digital is a separate company, we’re really able to clean up and get much more intentional about our communications and messaging on each one of those platforms. So that has been the bulk of my work this week, I would say. It was just working with my content development teams, building our go to market strategy, working with the other stakeholders in the company, in terms of what content and call to actions are most important for those websites and what events we want to feature and how we’re building community and in some cases, reestablishing or re-engaging community now that we’re splitting that into multiple directions. So that has been quite consuming this week. 

    Haley Hansen   

    Sounds like it. Do you have a defining moment in your creative journey, such as a particular project that made a significant impact on you, or something you produce that really showcased your creativity? 

    Kathryn Lawrie   

    I would say that over the past 10 to 12 years, I’ve had the opportunity to really be the lead and creative director on a number of videos. And those are in some cases like product release videos, but they were filmed almost like a commercial, an advertisement that we used in our trade shows and in our permanent showrooms as well as shared them with retailers. Oftentimes, it was to showcase, you know, the functions and the features of a product, but there’s a little more storytelling that goes into it than that. So I’ve really enjoyed being that creative director behind the scenes in terms of the videography work that we’ve done across the different business units. And that storytelling journey is something that I’m very passionate about. So I think that would be a highlight. 

    Haley Hansen   

    That’s also really cool. That’s even different from the graphic design stuff, that’s awesome. Do you have any cinematography training? Or did you kind of figure that out as you went along? 

    Kathryn Lawrie   

    Kind of figured it out as I went along. So as I kind of molded into that marketing role, with Scene Weaver, I was actually working with some contract photographers. And so I was overseeing, you know, still shots, lifestyle shots, contracting models, doing the set staging, and that sort of thing. And I think that having that one on one with professional photographers, and just being on set really opened my eyes to opportunity of, you know, how to, how to better showcase a product detail, or how to get the warm and fuzzy from this baby picture. And, you know, engaging with the talent as well as with the product was something that I really loved. And the more I got involved in the photography aspect of it, I did more and more with like the full catalog layout and design. And, so from there, I started doing the photography myself, I just read about it, studied about it, and started doing all of the product flat shots, but was still calling in external help for videography, because there’s only so many hours in the day. Just you know, getting to I guess, interview different videographers look at their portfolios and understand, you know, kind of their style. And what style fit the message that we were trying to utilize in our campaign was always a good process, a fun process that I enjoy just finding the right match. And still to this day, that’s really how I work through videography. 

    Haley Hansen   

    Can you recommend any specific skills or skill set that someone aspiring to your position should acquire, if they want to land a role in your field? 

    Kathryn Lawrie   

    I think soft skills are essential, and I think they’re harder and harder to come by today. Because it’s not really something that we can train ourselves on, or that we study in school. But I think just to be your authentic self is so important. And especially when you’re storytelling, or you’re looking to be in a marketing field or a branding field, I am very passionate about defining the why behind the what. I always want to know what the purpose is, and I look for a greater good or a greater reason to come to work than just for a paycheck. So I would say just honing those skills in the areas that you enjoy, like, do what do what is fun to you. Because if you’re having fun, then you’re not really working a day in your life, right? 

    Kathryn Lawrie   

    And for me, that looks like a lot of different roles and responsibilities, which I love about my current job, because I am kind of all over the place. But when it’s time to focus, you know, I can sit down and focus in those areas that I have strengthened and know that I can sit down and get the job done versus hiring out other help, you know? So I would say that, you know, just focus on focus on what you love. Focus on what makes you happy, like you know what makes you wake up in the morning and hone those skills. And then, just be true to yourself and be true to the people you encounter. And that will help you get a long ways in a career. 

    Haley Hansen   

    All right. Sounds like great advice. Are there any organizations or programs or events that you would recommend for young people interested in your field in South Carolina? 

    Kathryn Lawrie   

    Absolutely. I don’t know if you’ve spoken to anyone from South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance, but it would be great to tap in there and I’d be happy to make an introduction because, the video clip that I sent you? I don’t know if you noticed, but that was actually sponsored by the SCMA and the South Carolina Arts Commission. And they are starting a new website. I don’t know the exact name but it’s something along the lines of Future Creative Workforce. And their mission is really to share with middle school, high school and college level students that there are creative jobs in South Carolina, and when you drive past a manufacturing plant, don’t just think about the folks that are running the machinery and working on the manufacturing line. There are designers, graphic designers, illustrators, all types of creative brains within those manufacturing roles. So I would say that that would be a good connection for you and they do a lot of events and things as well. And I know that there’s going to be, you know, a big push with their new website and other videos of other creative companies that they have interviewed around South Carolina. I think they may still be in the process of that. 

    Kathryn Lawrie   

    Additionally, I would say that Springs Creative is always open to internships. And so anyone that’s in a creative field, you know, could definitely contact us with their resume and portfolio. And we could discuss opportunities for interning here at Springs. And we are getting ready to relocate, in Rock Hill still, literally just across the street from where we’re sitting today. We are moving our 1 million piece textile archive and our offices. So we will have a new headquarters not far from where we’re sitting today, but in a much more creative building, it’s going to truly be a world class facility, and a great place to just be inspired to look at the history of textiles, dating back to the 1800s and see how our teams scan those original vintage textiles and then recreate them by re-coloring or changing the scale and motif. And then we digitally print textiles today that mimic that original from, you know, 1819 or whatever the year may be. So there will be several release parties and opening celebrations. We’re not doing a huge grand opening, but there will be multiple opportunities on the horizon for students to come through to tour and we actually do student guided, er, we do designer guided tours through the archives today for student groups, especially those that are in the study or practice of like interior design and product design. 

    Haley Hansen   

    Final question: do you have any advice for current students or young adults who are pursuing a career in the creative world? 

    Kathryn Lawrie   

    Go for it. Don’t let people shy you away from it. Right? Like, that whole younger me walking around saying “I have a degree in unemployment. Can you help me?” It’s so not true. Don’t ever feel that way. Don’t think that. It’s okay to be an aspiring artist. There are ways to make money, there are ways to utilize your skills and your talent and find a lucrative career. Especially in the state of South Carolina with all of the manufacturing that’s coming to the state. So I would say just go for it, you know? Don’t don’t feel like you’re going to be a starving artist, because that’s a cliche term. Like there are numerous ways to make money as a young professional with a creative talent. 

    Haley Hansen   

    Is there anything else you think that you should share while you’re here? 

    Kathryn Lawrie   

    Come see the Baxter Mill Archive, whenever you can! Come be inspired! 

    Haley Hansen   

    All right! Well, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me. 

    Kathryn Lawrie   

    Thank you. 

  • Laura Ybarra-Kane

    Laura Ybarra-Kane

    Laura Ybarra-Kane, a native of Columbia, South Carolina, is the Manager of Education and interpretation planning at the South Carolina State Museum in Columbia. She holds an Anthropology of Education in Museum Studies degree from the University of South Carolina. 

    Laura Ybarra-Kane, a native of Columbia, South Carolina, is the Manager of Education and interpretation planning at the South Carolina State Museum in Columbia. She holds an Anthropology of Education in Museum Studies degree from the University of South Carolina. 

    Interview

    Transcript

    Laura Kane  00:00 

    My name is Laura Ybarra Kane, and I am from Columbia, South Carolina. 

    Emma Plutnicki  00:03 

    What do you do for work? What’s your official job title?  

    Laura Kane  00:10 

    Yeah, so, my job title changes every year, I feel like I’ve got a new one. My official job title is Manager of Education and Interpretation at your South Carolina State Museum. And I say “your” because we are your state’s Museum, which means I am a public servant; I am a state employee. And, what I do is all things education and interpretation. Now, a lot of people think interpretation, they think Spanish language, and a lot of times when they see the last name, Ybarra, they assume that I’m Spanish language interpretation, or they think it’s ASL interpretation. And that’s not necessarily what I do, even though both of them end up being part of my job. 

    So, interpretation in a museum means looking at all the exhibits and all the things that you come into contact with. The front desk, the main lobby, the videos that you come into contact with. Even the movies, the planetarium, the 40-theater, the observatory, all of our science and steam and history and social studies education classes. Everything you come into contact with, whether it’s physical, or just learning or something. It’s me and my team. And we are in charge of – what is your interpretation? What’s your experience of that? And a lot of other museums, you’ll see my title as Education and Experiences, because that’s really what I’m typically in charge of is, what’s your experience like when you get here. And I put on a bunch of different hats figuratively when I’m doing these things, you know, sometimes I’m like, okay, if I’m a teacher, and I’m looking at this space, and how am I going to use it? If I’m a grandma with my grandchild, how am I going to use the space? If I’m a mom, you know, and I’m a new mom, where’s my access to my pumping station? And where’s my stroller going to go? Or if I’m a dad or just a guy, maybe I’m a Vietnam War Vet. What’s it like for me here, because we have an area where you press a button, and you can hear fake bombs exploding. Is that going to cause a PTSD issue? So, I have to put all these different hats on when I’m going through these exhibition areas and interpret that for them. That’s one part of my job. 

    Another part of my job is all educational. So, I like to tell people that if you’re a child, a teacher, a student, or a parent, or if it blows up, and it’s gross and explodes, It’s me. I have everything to do with that. So, I do all of our camp stuff. I have a colleague who I work with closely, she’s my assistant for all my camp things. We do camps, we do STEAM programs, some of our STEAM programs, you light the table on fire, and other ones, we have liquid nitrogen and dry ice, and we’re exploding things in the classroom and chemical reactions and everything. W 

    We also teach astronomy very heavily. So, we have a big blowup dome that we take to schools. We have a big, massive 145-seater dome here at the museum and observatory; we’ve got both. But we also have a little version that we can take to schools and do outreach with. So sometimes we go to festivals and things like that. So, we do all things education and inspiring wonder that’s the big part of that part of the job is educational content. And when it comes to the specific educational content, versus the experiential content, because those are a little bit different, experiential content, I can kind of do anything I want. Educational content, I have to follow state standards, state education standards. So, I’ve got my big binders over there that I look through all the time, and we’ve got our books, and everything. And we go through with our teacher and our principal hat on and our grant hat on, and we make sure that whatever we’re doing here is going to meet a standard. That way, a teacher can pull it and shoot it out to their PTO [Parent Teacher Organization] or whoever else might be there or even for grants; that way, they can get grant money and fund their field trip. So, that’s another part of my job. 

    And then, another really big part of my job is accessibility, and when we say accessibility here at the Museum, we really mean disability. I am in charge of all our accessibility efforts here at the museum. So, everything from our accessibility mornings, which are the second Saturday of every month, and they’re two hours long.  We shut down the sounds in the exhibits, we have a sensory room set up, we’ve got special sensory bags, we have ASL interpreted shows, we have sensory shows, and all kinds of cool things. There’s a whole lot more characters and readings and all kinds of things. And then our yearly Disability Celebration Day, which is actually this Saturday, is really cool. It is our celebration of all South Carolina and South Carolinians of every ability. So, it’s a big free day. It’s all day long. And we have an adaptive artist come in, who makes spark tools for wheelchairs and walkers and things like that. So typically, folks who don’t get to participate can now participate.  

    We have a silent disco coming in from the Children’s Museum in the low country. We’ve got hands-on history stations, so people who are blind or have low vision can actually touch objects instead of just hearing about them. We have Ira on site, which is a Visual Interpretation Service for the Blind. So, they will log on to their phone and press a button, and a live person will take them through the museum and describe everything to them, which is amazing. Such a great resource there. We again have ASL interpreters here, and we work closely with the School for the Deaf and Blind, and we work with ABA therapy groups [Applied Behavior Analysis] and in DDSN [Department of Disabilities and Special Needs] and everything, so that’s another really big part of my job. 

    And then the other big part of my job. I have four jobs in one. The other really big part of my job is that I am also the liaison for the state for different educational resources. So, I go out to, like, next week, I’m going to Orangeburg County, I’m talking to every single principal in Orangeburg County. And I’m not only telling them what we offer, but I’m also asking them, what do you need us to do? What do we have to do here? It’s my job to go to the state house and talk about funding there. It’s my job to work with different organizations that might have some funding issues or maybe new exhibitions we can bring in to meet different needs that folks aren’t meeting. I connect very closely with EdVenturer, who is across the parking lot from me. And they’re the Children’s Museum over here. They do have an EdVenture over in Myrtle Beach as well. But it’s my job to connect with EdVenture and the Museum of Art, and the Zoo and the Children’s Museum of the Lowcountry over in Myrtle, the Sandbox Children’s Museum. So, it’s my job to connect with other museums and other non-formal education institutions around the state and around the country. I do work around the country and internationally. I have a site in Spain that I work with, and it’s my job to work with everyone and kind of see how are we connecting? What are they doing, so that we’re not duplicating it? And how are we celebrating and promoting everybody?  

    Emma Plutnicki  06:14 

    Amazing, sounds so exciting. So, where are you currently working from? You mainly work in the museum? 

    Laura Kane  06:20 

    Yes. So, this is my office. I’m at the South Carolina State Museum in the heart of Columbia, downtown. I share a parking lot with EdVenture. I share a building with EdVenture Children’s Museum, and I share a building with the Confederate Relic Room, which is a separate museum from us. I’m two blocks away from the Columbia Museum of Art. Five minutes away from Riverbanks Zoo and three minutes away from the historic Columbia area as well. 

    Emma Plutnicki  06:41 

    That’s amazing. So, how did you end up in this field? What background led you to it? And how did you hear about it?  

    Laura Kane  06:50 

    Yeah, so it’s really interesting. It’s a long, long story. So, I’ll try to make it brief. When I was a kid, when I was about four years old, we used to go visit my family in San Antonio all the time. So, my mom’s side is from Spain, and I was born in Madrid, but my dad’s side of the family is from all over Texas, and San Antonio, and Dallas. We used to go over there to see them. And, I remember very, very distinctly and clearly going into the science center that also had a planetarium, and Captain Picard from Star Trek was talking to me. And I was like, oh my gosh, this is amazing. Mind you, I’m four.  

    Emma Plutnicki  07:25 

    Yeah.  

    Laura Kane  07:26 

    And I went into this planetarium. And I was like, “this is it. This is what I want to do. This is amazing.” But I thought you had to be like an astronaut to do it. I didn’t realize you could go into education or anything. So, I was just blown away. I remember the event. I remember seeing it; I remember that little hair clip that I got. It was magenta stars, and they were sparkly, and everything. I remember it. So clearly. And I remember being like, I want to be a dinosaur astronaut teacher, which is a dinosaur that teaches in space from what I’m gathering in my four-year-old brain. So, you know, I go to school, and I love astronomy, and I love space, and all that other stuff and everything. And then I realized I didn’t really have; I had some good teachers, but I didn’t have a lot of teachers who supported me the way that I feel, like, as an adult, I really could have been supported, you know. And I love all the teachers and educators I work with. But there were some things that were missing from a kid who, quite frankly, needed some extra help, you know, and so I didn’t really have that person. So, I wanted to be that person.  

    So, when I got to college, I wanted to work in museums somehow and do these things. But I didn’t really know how and I didn’t know what the field was. I went into college with a bunch of different majors, but what I landed on was the Anthropology of Education and Museum Studies. And what I really specialized in was learning how other cultures and people around the world learn. And how do we gain knowledge? How do we retain knowledge? What do we value as knowledge, you know, and depending on where you are in the world, that’s vastly different. Brains are different wherever you go based on what you value. 

    And so, when I was 19, I was in the Anthropology Department. And they were like, “You know what, you’re really good at this kind of field here. Why don’t you go over here and just try this thing really quick.” So, when I was 19 years old, I started volunteering right here at the State Museum. I was giving tours; I was working with the curatorial team; I was writing these little tiny serial numbers on every single object, and in one of the collections, I had to practice writing on a grain of rice to get the number small enough, and everything it was really interesting. And so, I started doing all of that. And within about six months, they hired me part time to start taking the portable planetarium on the road. That was my very first paid job in the museum, was the Outreach manager or Outreach Coordinator at the time, not manager, and I would take all kinds of programs out to the children of South Carolina, some parts of North Carolina, and Georgia as well. And then, I was here for five years doing that and learning a lot of things about the field. I left for EdVenture for about five years, and I learned a lot when I was there. And I learned a lot about after-school programs and early childhood education school systems; I was, you know, EdVenture gave me the opportunity to work within schools. So that I could really understand what the teachers were doing. And then after that, after about five years, the State Museum came calling, and they said, “We want you back over here. And we want you to change the face of state museum education and education in South Carolina.” What are we doing here? We opened the planetarium, the 40-theater, and the observatory. And we needed someone to come in and really update all the resources. So, I came in, and I’ve been here for 10 years again. So, for about 20 years, I’ve been in the museum field, and it’s just kind of going full circle. 

    Emma Plutnicki  10:28 

    Amazing. Oh, my gosh. So, do you think it was challenging? Like getting into this career path? How do you handle challenges on a day-to-day basis? 

    Laura Kane  10:39 

    Yeah, I’ve worked with a lot of people, and museums are notoriously difficult to get into. The best thing you can do is just get your foot in the door. And most of the time, that’s going to be as a volunteer, unfortunately, and I don’t like unpaid labor, but sometimes you just got to get your foot in the door, which is how I started. But it’s really hard to get into these positions. When I opened up my full-time education coordinator position, I was looking for someone full-time to help me with what I do. We got hundreds of applications within a couple of weeks, and it’s very competitive. So just getting your foot in the door and just getting to know people is the best way to do it. In terms of how I handle challenges throughout… my daily basis. I mean, no, I tend to be a person who, just like I, compartmentalize a lot. And I organize a lot. So, if anyone is interested or does any project management, I’m very into project management. So, that’s how I organize myself. And I find that most of the time, that’s the challenge in the museum; there’s so much to do and not enough time, and everyone thinks their priority is priority. So, you have to be realistic about those, and you have to have very honest conversations. So, I kind of handle challenges by blocking them before they even happen. And then, once I do run into a challenge, it is just very honest conversations. We got to level with each other. And we have to be very honest about what is the actual priority? What’s coming down the pipeline? And let’s just move on and keep going. 

    Emma Plutnicki  11:59 

    Yeah, so you said it’s really competitive to get into the museum space. Are there any specific skills that an applicant should have to increase their chances of landing a role in that field? Or do you have a skill that you have that you find really helps you in your job? 

    Laura Kane  12:16 

    What makes me so good at my job is my ADHD [Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder]. So, I have fairly severe ADHD. And it gives me the ability to work on multiple projects all at the same time, which is a huge strength, I also do really well with flexibility and adapting very quickly. So, I don’t do well, in a kind of monotonous sort of schedule, if you like things to kind of be a little bit more routine, and you’d like to be able to predict what’s happening. I struggle with that. So that’s definitely not a field that would work for me. However, I can tell you that my colleague who I share a wall with. She has that kind of schedule, she’s our Rentals Manager and she has a process for things that are a little bit more standardized because she’s not working with children, and children are by nature not going to be standardized, they’re all going to do something different, no matter how long you plan. 

    So, I think skills-wise, overall, what all of us have, you need to be really organized. There’s no such thing as linear movement or planning in the museum world. You can’t just make a checklist and go down it; it’s not going to work that way. I use a lot of what are called Kanban charts. So, you know, we kind of organize, organize ourselves in Kanban charts. I have three massive calendars on my wall that I’m looking at right now that I use all the time, they go out to 2026. So, we plan three years out. And then I also use a Q2 production planner. It quadrants off what priority levels things are, and helps me make decisions that way. And, that way, I can also express them to my team because I also do have full-time and part-time staff working for me. So, it helps me express that to them.  

    So I’d say organization, and then people skills. Even if you are in the back, and you’re one of the folks who like working with objects and you don’t come out onto the floor very often, I would say people skills are really, really important. Because even if you’re not on the floor all the time working with people, you’re still telling the stories. So, curators aren’t on the floor a lot. But they are the keepers of the stories here; every object that comes through, they have a story to tell in a tale to tell. And it’s their job to get to the heart of what that is. So, I would say people skills are the other thing and just be very comfortable making mistakes. You have to be very, very comfortable making mistakes. There’s not always a guidebook for everything that we do. A lot of times, we kind of come up with something that no one’s done before. And so, you just kind of have to say something like, alright, well, let’s all put our heads together and try to figure out what this is going to be today because I’m not quite too sure. And we just asked people. So, when I was coming up with our accessibility and our disability stuff, I didn’t really know how we wanted to do it. So, I just started sending emails to all of the disability and accessibility partners in the area and all these people that handle all these things, and I said, Hey, I’m Laura. This is what I do. This is what we would like to do. Tell me about what your life is like, and I just listened to them, and for the first six months since I started that project, I just listened, and I just heard what people were saying. And they would tell me what troubles and tribulations they had in the area, and I would say, okay, well, I think we could solve that. And then I would work with them to create something. So just listen.  

    Emma Plutnicki  15:12 

    Make sense. Yeah. And so, since you did say it’s so difficult to get into this space, are there any events, programs, or organizations within South Carolina that you recommend for people to kind of get their foot into the door? 

    Laura Kane  15:27 

    SEMC is the South Eastern Museums Conference. And SCFM is the South Carolina Federation of Museums. And both of those hold conferences, usually in the fall and somewhere in the state. And I’m trying to remember where the one is coming up this year, I think it’s in Lawrence County. And what’s really cool about those is something I’m actually working on with some of my staff right now. So, when I have staff, I’d have them write about their future job. And then I try to help them get to whatever that job is. 

    So, one of the things I’m doing with those folks is saying, well, these are the conferences coming up. And they have scholarship programs for new people, which is amazing. So, and that’s one of the things that I got started, I have an award up here somewhere from SCFM. Um. When I was in college, I got to go to that conference on a scholarship, so they paid for a free ride for me to go. Unfortunately, I couldn’t afford a hotel. So, I had to drive every day. But it was like a 45-minute drive. Oh, in South Carolina, nothing’s too far for us here. But yeah, those are the two professional museum organizations. And like I said, the conferences have scholarship programs for the young and up-and-coming; we call them N.E.M.P. So, you know, emerging museum professionals is what it’s called. So, there’s scholarships for those.  

    They also sometimes have happy hours in the area. So, if you’re in the Richland County area, or somewhere in the middle of South Carolina, we tend to have museum happy hours, like once every few months, and so you just meet other museum people. The other thing you can do is look at your area and see if there’s a museum Happy Hour, if see if there’s an informal educators meet up.  I have to say that a lot of the time the parks and folks are really good at connecting and getting together. And even though it’s not a museum, it’ll still kind of get you into the same kind of field. And you’ll sometimes meet somebody like I’ve done, who also works in a museum. So sometimes you can connect in that way. So, that’s kind of a sneaky way to get in there. And again, just volunteering is a good way to just kind of just kind of get to know people. So yeah. 

    Emma Plutnicki  17:15 

    Yeah, that sounds great. Do you have a specific project that you find had a significant impact on you? Something that really showcased your creativity, or was a defining moment in your profession so far? It’s kind of a hard question. 

    Laura Kane  17:33 

    I have so many. If I died tomorrow, this is something I’m proud of, and I did really well. I would say one right now that I’m working on is the Disability Celebration Day. I feel like this is a really big mark to make, not just on the museum, but on the state as a whole. But when I was at EdVenture, we opened up a Makerspace. And, it was the first time we’ve had a Makerspace in this state, and we really spent a lot of our time just educating people about what Makerspaces were even though that’s not as big an impact as something like Disability Celebration Day, and we didn’t get as much notoriety and, you know, interviews and stuff like that. That, for me personally, was really special because it was the first time that I had done the full exhibit design, working with contractors, working with staff assignments, budgeting, doing a full budget and everything. So that one stands with me as the first time that I got to do a whole lot of experience and make a lot of mistakes. It’s also the first time that I created something where you can physically go there now. I can look across the parking lot and I can see the exhibition I designed over a decade ago. And there are still kids and families smiling and laughing and spending time together.  

    There’s something in the museum world that we call stay time. Some people call it some different things. But essentially, what it means is how much time people spend in an exhibition space or looking at an object, and usually it’s less than two minutes. So, it’s really quick; people go through stuff fairly fast unless you’re with a museum person that we’re going to talk your ear off the whole time. But when I developed that space, EDVenture with the team, it wasn’t just me. But you know, a lot of people, when we developed that space at EdVenture, noticed that the stay time for that area was upwards of 20 minutes, which is incredible. So, I think for me, those two, the exhibit over there that I take my daughters to now. So, I take her over there and we play in the exhibit. And, you know, we build things and everything. And I see all these families still enjoying stuff, and they see the creations that I made over a decade ago still on the walls and everything inspiring the joy of learning, right? And then the disability work that I’m doing now, I think, are the two stamps of my career that we’re the proudest of. Just because they have a very heartfelt impact and they were very needed at the time. 

    Emma Plutnicki  19:41 

    Yeah, I love that. That’s amazing. And so, just as we wrap up, do you have any advice for current college students or just young people who are pursuing a career in a creative profession?  

    Laura Kane  19:54 

    Yeah, just try it. Just try it. You don’t know. You never know. I was talking to a group of students with an Autism Society last week about this very thing. It was so interesting. The same day, I’m walking; I’m actually walking out the door to talk to a group of students with autism right now about this very thing. Just try it; you never really know. There are so many different jobs in the museum that you might not be the super crazy personality to do all that crazy education stuff; you might be a little more grounded and cerebral, right? And there are spaces for that, there are jobs for that, you have exhibits designers and fabricators, you have the store to run, managers, and people who are running the shop, you know. You have people who do all these big, huge, beautiful events like weddings, and all these other cool things, observatory events, and stuff. You have curators who tell stories, but then you have registrars who, you know, don’t tell the stories, but they take care of the stuff; they protect the items. Then you have people who do marketing, you know, all of that marketing brain that they’ve got to do, and you have fundraisers and money people, which I don’t I spend the money, I don’t make the money typically, but they do. So, they’ve raised all the funding that you need, you know, executive directors and board members. So, there’s so many different jobs just in one museum that I wouldn’t be afraid to just try it and see what you like because you never know what you’re going to stumble upon. 

    And every single museum you go to is going to be crazy, different, very, very different. And it’s not just museums; we call ourselves informal education. So formal education is a traditional cable classroom. But informal education is everywhere. Everywhere you go, there’s some sort of informal educator. So, like I said, you know, I work with EdVenture in the zoo, and the art museum, and the State House and everybody because they all have ‘a me’ there. And all of us have ‘our jobs’. And we’re all very different in how we do them. So just because I do it one way doesn’t mean it’s going to be the way that you do it. So just try it out. And then make sure you’re a good problem solver. I would go back to the skills that you asked me about before. And I would say problem-solving is probably the number one skill that we look for, again, because there aren’t always answers. So, you have to figure it out. 

    Emma Plutnicki  21:56 

    Yeah, I love that. Just overall, is there anything else you’d like to add?  

    Laura Kane  22:00 

    Yeah. I hope everyone you know finds their path in life. It takes a long time. Again, I changed my major 11 times because I had no idea that this was a field, you know, and anything I can ever do to help, I’m an open book. So, feel free to reach out to me and I’m happy to help do whatever I can.  

    Emma Plutnicki  22:17 

    Amazing. Well, thank you so much for talking to me today.