Meet Mia: Q&A with Ken Kornack, Head of Facilities
Meet Mia is a bimonthly series highlighting museum staff—the talented humans who help make Mia a community treasure. Watch for new Q&As in People & Culture.
April 14, 2025—Head of Facilities Ken Kornack oversees the many, many projects required to maintain a 110-year-old building and ensure the safety and preservation of the artworks within. With more than 20 years of experience in institutional operations and project leadership, Kornack taps his engineering background to enable and refine Mia’s systems.
How long have you been at Mia?
While I’ve only been at Mia for about two and a half years, I’ve been working in the Twin Cities museum community for my whole career. I’ve done a lot of different things in that time—from visitor programming and interpretation to managing multimillion dollar capital expansion projects, to leading the entire operation side (finance, HR, front and back office).
This job at Mia represented an opportunity to get back into the nuts-and-bolts side of a museum. I’d really missed that. I also really liked what Mia stood for and where it was headed. I’m still excited to be here every day and to help set the stage for what’s next.
What’s one of the more unusual parts of your job?
I think the fact that communication is probably the most essential part of what I do. I love cranes, buildings, machinery, and systems, but none of that stands alone. It’s all in service of the building and the people here.
So, really, my job is to translate the needs of the building into language for the appropriate audience: funding requests to leadership, all of the connections to my team, the unique nature of our building and what it means to work here to contractors, and what we’re doing (and why) to the users and occupants of the building.
It’s a lot, but if I can help the building’s users understand what’s happening, it’ll encourage them to care about it, and be a little curious about it. I think that generally fosters more grace and understanding for the inevitable disruption. I think the building can tell, too.
What is the most underrated power tool?
I reject the premise of the question. Tools are not underrated or overused; they make things easier and allow us to do things that might otherwise be impossible. They can be simple or complex, power or hand, homemade templates, or electronic/computer-based, but they’re highly personal and highly specialized to the user and what they do—not only in the trades or the crafts but also artists, accountants, and writers. Tools are fascinating.
In January of 2024, your team renovated the area outside Pillsbury Auditorium, temporarily removing a 16th century fountain. How did you feel when the removal revealed a skull and crossbones carved into the base? Worried about a curse?
Curse? Not at all. It’s more of a blessing. It had been close to a hundred years since that piece was placed there, and being one of the first people to see it was pretty amazing. My immediate thoughts were more builder-related: was this the carver leaving their mark, or was this piece recycled from something else and repurposed here? There’s a long history of builders signing their work where it won’t be seen except by other builders and of reusing material because it really matters.
If you could take one artwork home from Mia for a year, what would it be?
Probably a piece of Ahab—the big Calder mobile. I’m a huge fan (I even have a Calder tattoo!). The blend of artistry and engineering and the delicate balance that he brought to all of his work never ceases to give me pause, in the best way possible. And even though I don’t have the space for the whole mobile, there’s still beauty in the simplicity of the construction and execution of the individual components.
What was your first job (before and/or after college)?
Like many kids of a certain era, my first job was a paper route. But my first job of consequence was while I was in college, in 1991, when I started as a security guard at the Science Museum of Minnesota; blue blazer, red tie—those were the days! I’ve been in museums ever since.
What’s your favorite restaurant on Eat Street?
Probably Lu’s. That’s a good sandwich.
If you weren’t working as a head of facilities, what would you be?
One of my favorite jobs was fixing and building exhibits at the Science Museum. So, I’d either still be doing that, or working in the trades.
Staff love your construction updates emails. If you could write for a publication, what would it be?
The New Yorker. It’s a great mix of fiction and nonfiction, topical pieces, and poetry. Even though it’s an overwhelmingly complex publication, it shows up week after week. I can’t keep up!
Would you rather get the new Taylor Swift album or a new Swiffer?
Why not both? The Swiffer is a very useful tool, and listening to Taylor Swift while using it is a win/win situation.