LACS hopes for a more normal year

Patricia Lutz didn’t expect to develop a second job after being hired as the executive director of the Luxembourg American Cultural Society in December 2019.

But a few months into her new role, right after the unveiling of the remodeled Roots and Leaves Museum and research center, the Covid-19 pandemic put a temporary stop to museum visits, trips to Luxembourg and dual citizenship, and it forced events to be canceled or held online.

While Lutz has spent most of her career working in museums, the virus made for a different type of venture.

“I feel like there’s two jobs. There’s the one I’m doing now and the one I was supposed to do,” Lutz said.

She planned to visit Luxembourg to immerse herself in its culture and meet its people firsthand, but four trips have been canceled by the government.

That’s been the most disappointing,” she said.

Luxembourg was hit by the virus earlier than the U.S. and was largely shut down, so “even if you could get there, it wouldn’t be a lot of fun,” Lutz said.

The country had international travel issues closer to home to work through since many people who work in Luxembourg live in a neighboring nation, Lutz said.

She still plans to visit Luxembourg when restrictions loosen, and she may bump into distant relatives. A sample of her DNA included Luxembourg and Belgium roots, she said, but she hasn’t researched her genealogy.

Someday, Lutz said, she will use the LACS research room “to do the work that many people come in here to do.”

On this side of the Atlantic Ocean, Lutz and the LACS staff members found an alternative way to keep in touch with many area residents’ roots.

The annual cultural conference held in conjunction with Luxembourg Fest was held online, the Luxembourg band Zero Point Five held a virtual concert on National Day and the Michel Mies 4tet performed on New Year’s Eve.

“We’ve talked about doing virtual things,” Lutz said, but nobody knew how. “It was always a hurdle. Then we got forced into it. It taught us a lot.

“If we can’t do Luxembourg Fest, how do we bring the fest to them?”

The conference will hold an in-person event this year, but the online format was so successful it will be repeated. The speakers, Lutz said, don’t have to travel, and Ansay Development, whose owners have roots in Luxembourg, offered a room to hold a large audience for the Luxembourg language class.

“It definitely broadened our options,” Lutz said of holding events online. “I still miss in-person (interaction).”

Lutz is thankful that modern technology allowed events to be held.

“If this had happened 10 years ago, I don’t know what we would have done,” she said.

Lutz and the LACS were fortunate in another way as well. Society membership didn’t drop.

“People are renewing,” Lutz said. “Our annual appeal went very well. People were very generous.”

Another year like the last one, however, “could be a lot worse,” Lutz said.

The LACS received a Paycheck Protection Program loan, and, Lutz said, Ansay and Krier Foods have been generous with financial help.

This year, the LACS is planning to hold a beer garden in July and the annual Luxembourg Fest in August.

“We are moving forward. We’ll see,” Lutz said. “It may not be exactly the same.”

Planning events during the pandemic is still a challenge.

“I think it’s even harder this year. There’s a lot of misinformation about the vaccine,” Lutz said.

Lutz came to the LACS after working as executive director of the Washington County Historical Society for nearly a decade. Before that, she was director of the Amherst Historical Society and had been marketing coordinator for the Emily Dickinson Museum, both in Massachusetts.

Lutz grew up loving history and museums. In college, she majored in English at Smith College in Massachusetts until she took a material culture course at a museum in Deerfield, Mass., that showed life in pre-Colonial times.

“I just fell in love,” she said.

Lutz took a summer internship at the museum and later got a job at an art museum. She earned a degree in American studies and then got a professional certificate in museum studies from Tufts University.

Museums, she said, make for interesting work.

“It’s all about stories. It’s people’s lives,” she said. “It feels like you’re always reading a good book.”

The appeal of the LACS for Lutz is its broad mission.

“Most organizations I’ve worked for have been a region or an area. This was interesting because it was more vast,” Lutz said.

The LACS has a dual role. It preserves and retells the story of Luxembourg, “but on the other hand we’re also telling a bigger story of Luxembourg’s move to America,” Lutz said.

Lutz’s early research on the country has turned up a couple of surprises.

“I did not realize what a great country for wine they are,” she said. “I’ve sampled the wine. It’s delicious.”

Luxembourg’s reverence to those who liberated the nation from Nazi rule is the other.

“They think about and honor the American fighters in World War II and are still affected by what the Germans did,” Lutz said. “They still remember the Americans’ contribution and still are appreciative of it. That I find extremely touching.”

Lutz came to the LACS in the middle of a remodeling project that she joked “went better than my bathroom remodel.”

The project made better use of existing space, which it turns out comes in handy for social distancing.

A reception was held last March 6 at the museum, and the building closed March 18 due to the pandemic.

The museum has since reopened and offered free admission to residents of Ozaukee and Washington counties last week that drew more than 50 people.

Many of the volunteers and interns have not yet returned, “quite a few people I miss talking to every day,” Lutz said.

For more information, visit www.lacs.lu.