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Beyond the Walls of a Museum – Shin Yu Pai (alumni spotlight)

Shin Yu pulling a letterpress print at Expedition Press during an Atlas Obscura studio tour
Shin Yu pulling a letterpress print at Expedition Press during an Atlas Obscura studio tour

Shin Yu Pai is an artist, poet, community builder, mother, professional, and so much more. She came to Seattle to study Sociocultural Anthropology with a background in various arts. While studying anthropology, she enrolled in museology classes because of her interest and experience working with museums and arts nonprofits, and quickly realized that her passions lay within the Museology program.      

Shin Yu came to the Museology program because of the mentorship she could receive from the faculty. “I chose the UW Museology program because of the intelligence of skillfulness of teachers like Wilson O’Donnell and [former faculty member] Ron Chew – amazing individuals who have lived and worked in the real world and retained a strong sense of self, community, and mentoring.” She says that the faculty “encouraged my creativity and interest in storytelling and community-based museums and invited and encouraged me to explore the world around me in a way that was profoundly meaningful and integrative to my past experiences and studies. I could bring all of my experiences and identity to the work that I wanted to do.”

After earning her degree in 2009, Shin Yu first began working as an Acquisitions Curator for the Wittliff Collections at Texas State University-San Marcos before being recruited to run a private family foundation for literature and language in Arkansas. In her role at the foundation, Shin Yu made great strides through public programs, evaluation, and strategic planning. “I co-designed public programs with faculty and staff, acted as a program officer and evaluator for foundation programs, and led strategic planning with a consultant that I brought to Hendrix from a Buddhist leadership program that I had been involved with at Naropa University. We brought in blockbuster visitors to the Hendrix campus like Michael Ondaatje, Moises Kaufman of Tectonic Theater, Luis Alberto Urrea, and composer Dan Welcher.”

Shin Yu with family
Shin Yu with family

Shin Yu and her husband moved back to Seattle to start a family, giving birth to their son in 2013. “The years after giving birth were challenging” she says, “getting back into the professional scene after having been away for a few years, while undergoing identity shifts as a new parent, was difficult.” Shin Yu spent some time working in marketing, communications, fundraising, and consulting for The Giving Practice at Philanthropy Northwest. She held roles with ArtsFund, and most recently working with start-up nonprofit Amplifier for the last six months as their first Development and Marketing Director.

Simultaneous to her work with Seattle area nonprofits, she started working with Atlas Obscura in 2016. Atlas Obscura is an organization that produces guides, tours, and events for off-beat, curious, and unique experiences around the world. “The work [at Atlas Obscura] involved producing events that inspire curiosity and wonder. I thought of the work as running a museum without walls – a cabinet of curiosity brought to life.” Shin Yu was recently offered a full-time position with Atlas Obscura, where she can focus on curating and producing events as the Deputy Head of the Obscura Societies, while overseeing expansion to Portland and the greater Northwest. In this role, Shin Yu is able to “partner with museums, cultural institutions, and uncommon individuals to produce experiential and immersive programs, and get to work outside the usual taste-making institutions that can be so difficult to penetrate.”

Shin Yu reflects that her career path has not been terribly linear, instead guided by her values. “I’ve always been this person that worries about paying the bills, sustaining my family, making sure we are literally not homeless – and that has often driven a tendency to work more than is perhaps healthy or necessary. I made the choice to work full-time with Atlas, in large part because the role is 100% virtual and allows me to put different things at the center of my life. Namely, well-being, family, and creativity – the things that I love. I’d like to focus next on getting a yoga teacher certification and helping my husband rebuild his healing practice, Longevity Acupuncture, in Seattle.”

Shin Yu with an embroidered poem she created for The City of Redmond
Shin Yu with an embroidered poem she created for The City of Redmond

In addition to her work with Atlas, Shin Yu is an artist and a published author and poet. She was a Stranger Genius Nominee in Literature in 2014, and is the Poet Laureate for the city of Redmond.  “I’m proud of my creative work and what I do to support and nurture community – the work that I’ve done to bring together my interests and many communities into an artful life.”

Shin Yu said Museology helped prepare her in managing nonprofit organizations, which she has used throughout her career. “Museology taught me how to analyze a complex budget, understand finances, and make budgetary projections which was tremendously helpful in running a philanthropic foundation. I learned a lot about the operations, staffing, and board governance of complex organizations and what it takes to run a strong, healthy nonprofit that can thrive.”

Museology also prepared her for community-building through work in nonprofits. “The program at UW is deeply imbued with a social justice element – and I took that into my work,” Shin Yu explains, reflecting on a practicum with Kris Morrissey and her work with Museums and Social Issues. “To this day, the lessons that I learned in working with community – how to create a welcoming and inclusive space, stems directly from those early experiences with the organizations that I came into contact with through Museology.”

Hannah Pfaltzgraff, Museology Communications Assistant