National Bonsai Foundation

	NATIONAL BONSAI & PENJING MUSEUM STAFF

	JACK SUSTIC – MUSEUM CURATOR Jack Sustic, who retired as National Bonsai & Penjing Museum Curator in 2005, has been reappointed to this position. Jack first came to the Museum in 1996 as an intern sponsored by the National Bonsai Foundation. When his internship was completed he returned to his job as nursery and greenhouse manager at the Riverbanks Zoo and Botanic Garden in South Carolina. In 1998 the position of Gardener opened up at the Museum and Jack took this opportunity to return to Washington. Shortly thereafter he was appointed Assistant Curator. In 2002, after a time away from the Museum, he returned as Supervisory Curator. During this tenure as curator he also served as Co-Chair of the 5th World Bonsai Convention that was held in Washington D.C. in 2005. In July of that year he resigned to help his father in the running of the family farm in Lennon, Michigan. Jack met his wife, Jung, while serving with the U.S. Army in South Korea. And in that country he came to appreciate the beauty of bonsai. On his return to the United States he pursued a degree in horticulture from Michigan State University and began his bonsai career that led to the Museum. In his earlier work at the Museum he had the opportunity to study with John Naka, Harry Hirao and other California bonsai artists. He also apprenticed with Saburo Kato at Mansai-en in Japan. As now the fifth appointed curator in the history of the Museum he has had the opportunity to work with all previous curators: Robert Drechsler, Warren Hill and James Hughes. During his recent hiatus from the Museum he was appointed to the NBF Board of Directors and was a member of the Executive Committee. Jack will assume the position effective November 1, 2008.

Photo: Museum Staff	Kathleen Emerson-Dell – Assistant Curator for Artifact Collections Ked studied Art History at the University of Maryland and completed graduate studies at the University of Michigan in Japanese Art History and Asian Art History. She received a Freer Fellowship to study Japanese Ceramics at the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. and a Japan Foundation Fellowship for advanced Japanese language studies in Tokyo Japan. As the Japanese specialist at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, she catalogued the Japanese collections and authored publications on Japanese decorative arts of the Meiji-period. She was appointed Assistant Curator in February 2006.

Photo: Museum Staff	Aarin Packard – Assistant Curator for Plant Collections Aarin is a California native and attended California State University Fullerton where he majored in Anthropology. He also received a Masters degree in Museum Studies from The George Washington University in Washington D.C. Aarin was first exposed to bonsai at a very young age by his father. Later in high school he studied and worked on bonsai with his close friends as a hobby. Before coming to the Museum he worked for the Institute of Museum and Library Services and he interned in the Botany Department at the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution. He assumed the position of Assistant Curator in June 2006.

	Amy Forsberg Amy is the new gardener for the Museum. She is a native of Maryland, with a B.A. in Dramatic Arts from St. Mary's College of Maryland and 7 years of experience as a theatre costumer in Washington DC. In 2001 Amy changed careers and entered the field of horticulture. She was a full-time intern in the Arboretum's National Herb Garden for one year and completed 24 credits of horticulture classes at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Graduate School. Other gardening jobs followed, including 2 years at the U.S. Botanic Garden in downtown Washington D.C. In 2006, she returned to the National Arboretum as a gardener in the Asian Collections. Now, she is thrilled to work in the Museum and is looking forward to learning about the world of bonsai.