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Erin Blankenship bids farewell to the Florida Holocaust Museum

Bill DeYoung

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Florida Holocaust Museum Deputy Director Erin Blankenship's last day was Jan. 31. Photo by Bill DeYoung.

When the Florida Holocaust Museum re-opens, hopefully in the summer, it will do so without Deputy Director Erin Blankenship. Jan. 31 was her last day; on Feb. 10, she’ll start her new job as CEO and President of the Holocaust Museum and Cohen Education Center in Naples.

The St. Petersburg museum, which has been without a permanent CEO since the March 2024 departure of Carl Goodman (board chair Mike Igel is acting as interim), closed last July for a massive “re-imagining”; the building is being expanded to make way for the arrival of the Elie Wiesel Collection, a permanent exhibit of personal papers, artifacts and other materials belonging to the late Nobel Prize winning author and humanitarian.

Another reason for the physical remodeling: The museum needs the space to properly display a 34-foot, 10-ton fishing vessel, Thor, which was used to smuggle Danish Jews to neutral Sweden during World War II. The boat was acquired in 2023.

Parting company at this particular moment, said Blankenship, is “very bittersweet. Those are huge projects. I’m leaving when we’re close to unveiling lots of really amazing things. But I wanted to explore other opportunities to grow, and to stretch, and to lead another organization that I care deeply about.”

Naples is a smaller facility, but Blankenship sees it as a welcome challenge. “The mission’s obviously very important to me,” she said, “because it’s the same one I’ve been serving for the last 23 years. It was just a really great opportunity.”

Born in New York, Blankenship was raised in northern Maine (“very close to Canada”) and briefly entertained thoughts of a career as a professional dancer.

In 1997, she transferred from the University of Maine to the University of South Florida, where she received a B.A. in Art Studies (she would go on to earn a Master’s in Museum Studies from the University of Leicester in 2007).

While attending USF, she interned at the Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg. “I love objects and art,” she explained. “I feel like there’s real power in it, in transferring memory, ideas and discussion. I love all things museum; I always have. That was one of the highlights of my trips to New York growing up.”

Her first job at the Florida Holocaust Museum was as Registrar; she was named Curator of Exhibitions and Collections in 2005.

“The museum,” she observed, “is obviously a history museum, it tells the story of people who suffered and died during the Holocaust, but it also has a goal and a philosophy of exhibiting and collecting fine art created in response to the Holocaust. That was a big draw for me.”

RELATED STORY: Holocaust Museum gifted William Pachner painting

The mission, she explained, “is the same now as it was then, to kind of shape ideas around how we exhibit objects, and work with survivors, and exhibit art. I love the work and I love the people.”

The presence of actual, physical Holocaust artifacts – from survivors’ possessions, to chilling photographs, to the concentration camp boxcar on display to the imminent arrival of Thor – provide visitors with a visceral reminder of the lowest point in world history. “The power of the real thing,” Blankenship calls it. She has been, she noted proudly, the steward of these items.

“You have to realize that these were real people, real experiences. These things actually happened.”

There is, she stresses, “another way in,” through art produced not only by Holocaust survivors, but by interpretive artists. “I think everybody learns in different ways. Some people like a textbook, a history. Our goal has always been to teach people through personal stories, survivor stories, which I think is the most important.”

Art, however, “is very personal to the viewer, it’s very personal to the artist, and you get to think of other ideas about feelings surrounding the experiences of the Holocaust. Or just new ways of thinking about an event that took place, one aspect.

“It’s been important to the museum, and to me, when we collect art to make sure that it can be interpreted in multiple ways. That an artist isn’t creating a fantasy world where something didn’t take place, or creating fantastical ideas about some historical event. It’s still rooted in what happened. It’s important in terms of how we respond to this history.”

Although the Naples museum, and her future there, is still something of a blank slate, Blankenship has high hopes for the future. “I want to take the very good work that they’ve done and help them build upon it. After 23 years, I’ve created a lot of partnerships for the Florida Holocaust Museum, internationally and nationally, and some of them don’t exist down there.

“Especially when we talk about education, and partnering with the schools, to see how I can lend my knowledge and experience to help them reach more students, and reach more educators.”

Blankenship plans to be in St. Pete for the dedication of the Wiesel exhibit. “I am so excited about seeing everything done and complete,” she said. “And I’m hopefully leaving my colleagues in a good place. My staff, both present and past, is amazing.

“And our Holocaust survivors and their families. The best people. How lucky am I that I’ve gotten to know these people?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 Comment

1 Comment

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    Danny E White

    February 7, 2025at2:47 pm

    It was a pleasure working with Erin during the ‘Beaches, Benches, and Boycotts’ exhibition in 2019. It was a commendable undertaking of truth-telling. Best wishes, Erin!

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