.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} Paula Hutton McKinley is closing in on her 10th anniversary at the Des Moines Art Center on July 4, and she’s hoping no one will notice. As volunteer services and cultural life programs director for the Art Center, McKinley prefers to be behind the scenes and says she does her best to avoid the spotlight. But those who have enjoyed the Big Hair Ball and Day of the Dead events are familiar with her work, even if they don’t know her by name.

What do you do at the Art Center?

I help to create events and I work with volunteers. Day of the Dead is a project that I began more than seven years ago after being in the San Francisco Bay area doing a lot of multicultural programming within a museum setting. Day of the Dead was one of the events we did, so when I came here I realized we had a fabulous Latino community, yet many of the individuals never celebrated it. I asked our director if we could do a Day of the Dead event. She said OK, and a lot of work went into it. We did a lot of preparation, but before we even opened the doors seven years ago, the director said this was going to be an annual event, because there was such a huge buzz. We involved so many stakeholders within the Latino community in order to make this project so successful. We had more than 2,000 people for three hours of family-friendly events.

What did you do before coming to the Art Center?

I first began my museum work as a volunteer, because part of my background was that I was an art major. So I was interested in doing some work at the Lowie Museum of Anthropology, which is part of the University of California-Berkeley. Now it’s called the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology. I did some volunteer work for a few weeks and then was offered a position. I also ended up working with volunteers and planning public programming. I worked at the Richmond Museum of History in Richmond, Calif., and some work at the Smithsonian [Institute]. So I move around a lot.

What did you do at the Smithsonian?

I did some training in collections management. It was really an awesome experience, to get to see the treasures of the United States.

How did you end up in Des Moines?

My husband was relocated by Meredith Corp. But before that move, we went from the San Francisco Bay area to a little community called Greenwood, S.C. That was the perfect way to enter into Des Moines. I think that if we had gone from San Francisco to Des Moines, we might have fumbled through. But since we moved from such a small town in the South, which was such a culture shock, it made it a lot easier.

So are you a big city or small town girl?

I grew up in a small town in upstate New York, so I’m comfortable in big cities or small towns.

How does the Art Center stack up against other museums where you’ve worked?

This is a phenomenal museum. My other two museums were lovely, but they were small cultural museums. This is a very significant art museum. Also, I have this wonderful connection in that my father as a young architect, after graduating from Yale, had the opportunity to work for Eliel Saarinen (who designed the original building of the Art Center).

Where would people find you on the weekend?

My husband and I have an 11-year-old, so we do a lot of activities with our daughter. And we live near the bicycle trails, so we do a lot of biking.

Have you done RAGBRAI?