Fort Erie hires Clark Bernat as manager of culture and museums

After 15 years in Niagara Falls and nine years in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Clark Bernat has landed as the new manager of culture and museums with the Town of Fort Erie.

Bernat told Fort Erie Radio the town has no current strategic plan in place for its museums and that completing one is his first major priority.

The plan will guide operations at the Fort Erie Historical Museum and the Railway Museum, both under his leadership, and expand public access for residents and visitors. Provincial funding hinges on having an approved strategic plan, placing immediate pressure on Bernat to deliver by June or July this year.

Bernat has spent most of his first week at town hall reviewing reports, strategies and internal systems. He said he has focused on onboarding and understanding how the municipality operates before proposing new initiatives.

He said he favours shorter planning cycles over long term documents.

“The world moves so quickly. Things change and evolve so quickly that I am a big believer in relatively short strategic plans to make sure it’s nimble enough to change and adapt as you go, but at the same time providing everybody with a sense of where we’re going and what we need to get done,” said Bernat.

He described his approach as a middle ground between traditional museum work and sweeping change. He said the job requires basic stewardship first, along with room to test new ideas once core operations are stable.

Visibility will be a key measure of success in the role.

“In Niagara Falls, I ran a large museum and people still didn’t know where the museum is,” said Bernat.

Though Fort Erie already has some outreach in place, including weekly Tuesday social media posts about local history, Bernat believes the goal is to maintain steady awareness so residents know the posts come from staff with expertise and that the town has a museum service at all.

Bernat outlined how partnerships will shape what comes next, especially since not every community has the same opportunities.

In Niagara-on-the-Lake, he said, he worked with the Shaw Festival on museum programming.

In Niagara Falls, he helped create an intellectual film series with former Brock University professor Joan Nicks after he saw a gap in local cultural offerings.

Bernat does not intend to duplicate programs that already exist in Fort Erie, including TIFF’s Fort Erie series, and will instead look for needs that are not being met over the next few months.

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