'Faith in community': Wellfleet Preservation Hall's new director seeks space for sharing.

WELLFLEET ― Behind a set of carved entry doors depicting four biblical scenes — “The Annunciation,” “The Holy Family,” “The Visitation” and “The Assumption” — on vivid colors of wood, sits the transformed remnants of a Catholic church.

The Wellfleet Preservation Hall, occupier and preserver of the former Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church since 2011, is entering a new chapter as newly appointed Executive Director Kate Ryan settles into her first calendar year in the role to which she was appointed in December.

“I'd always loved the hall,” she said. “Growing up in Eastham, this place was not only just a beautiful building but an anchor to the community in Wellfleet.”

Ryan moved to Eastham from New York at a young age. After working her way through the Nauset school system, Quinnipiac University and early career jobs, including being an English teacher in the Czech Republic, Ryan found herself back at her middle school, Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School in East Harwich. After a decade spent teaching, Ryan wanted a change of pace.

“I had worked with a great science teacher early on in my time at (Lighthouse) Charter, who said, ‘This is just one chapter of the story. Don't let this be your only chapter, because there's a long book that needs to be written here,’” she said.

She joined the hall as “sort of a general manager” in mid-August then became interim director soon after. After courting the position for two months, Ryan officially took over at the end of the year, bringing a new furry staff member with her, her dog Lucky.

“That's how the board went forward with it,” she said. “(They) said, ‘We're gonna give you this opportunity but it's an opportunity for you to figure out if this is what you want.”

Working alone new path for teacher Kate Ryan

At the start, the transition from spending every day with middle schoolers to working mostly alone was interesting. Ryan said she would spend days figuring out what a day in her position would look like and relying heavily on the advice of her predecessor, Janet Lesniak, who resigned in 2022, on what to do.

“You know exactly what you're doing minute to minute with teaching,” she said. “With this, you could be answering a call from someone who wants to put on a concert, or talking to a donor, setting up for an event, talking to a couple who wants to be married here. It was always something different, which I really thought was a great and fun part of the process. And nobody asked me to go to the bathroom.”

However, as she started to step into her own, Ryan got to work on ushering in her era at Preservation Hall. She hired two full-time staffers and a summer intern — a former student of hers at Lighthouse Charter — oversaw her first Wellfleet Oyster Fest, among other events, and created a vision for the Hall’s future.

“It took time and a lot of constructive conversations with our board and with Janet to figure out, ‘Is what we used to do in the past still valid and still applicable? Or is it really time?’ Was this just the overhaul that was needed to not get with the times, but honor the past that we've had here and the commitments we've made, but look towards the future in a way that is reflective of the culture that we're in today? It was a big ask for everybody to trust in me and then for me to trust in them. So far, so good.”

As for the future, Ryan hopes to make the hall a center for after-school programming, create more partnerships between the hall and the Cape at-large and see more people walk through the doors.

Hoping to grow mission to other Cape areas

“My goal is really to project our mission statement throughout the Cape, not just on our one pocket of the Cape,” she said.  “I would love to have more young people in the building. More art classes or even a tutoring workshop or center for kids after school. Things like that. We have a big building here and we have a great backyard. I really think that we could fill it.”

As a former teacher, Ryan said the job is never really over. Acknowledging the hefty costs associated with extracurricular activities, Ryan plans on implementing free classes and activities so kids can have a creative, social space in the community.

“Classes are great, the arts are wonderful but social time with kids is what they remember the most,” she said. “This could be a really great spot for kids' social and community building.”

Her desire to foster in-person connection extends into her mission for the Hall at large. Noticing a wane in face-to-face interaction and a wax in face-to-screen interaction, Ryan said she hopes to reinvigorate the Hall’s community presence.

Rebuilding in-person communication for young people

“That concept of face-to-face time is really important, I think, for people's overall well-being,” she said. “That’s what I want to see here. It's so easy to send a text, to make a plan and bail. But here, when you actually put in some effort and show up, it gets more people to show up and strengthens that sense of belonging to this community. Historically, that's how people made it through winter months or dark times. They leaned on the community. Coming out of some dark years in our global world, it's more important than ever to refill your cup and faith in community.”

Frankie Rowley covers entertainment and things to do. Contact her at frowley@capecodonline.com.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Wellfleet Preservation Hall new leader to build face-to-face exchange