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Here’s today’s news story on the new hires at the Taubman Museum of Art.

After nearly two years of staff reductions, the Taubman Museum of Art is announcing two crucial full-time hires today.

The Taubman’s new director of development and new membership director will lead the charge in raising more than $1.2 million to keep the nonprofit afloat and pursuing its goal of growing 3,000 members to 7,000.

Both are familiar faces, to the art museum and to the community. Director of Development Kim Williamson held the same position from 2003 to 2005 at the Art Museum of Western Virginia when it was housed inside Center in the Square. After that, she served five years as director of development for North Cross School in Roanoke County.

Membership Coordinator Maria St. Clair also worked previously at the museum, starting in 2004 and leaving this past June after a year as the museum’s membership and annual fund coordinator. She worked in the interim as vice president of business development for the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce.

St. Clair, who’s both an organizer and artist involved in Roanoke’s Marginal Arts Festival, said she’s always felt a deep connection to the arts and cultural scene. “I kind of feel like I’m going home.”

Taubman executive director David Mickenberg said he was happy to welcome both of them back.

“The museum conducted a national search for both positions,” he said. Williamson and St. Clair “hands-down were best qualified.”

Both were involved in organizing the capital campaign that made building the $66 million museum possible.

Williamson said she’s looking forward to fundraising efforts that focus on services and programs rather than construction. “When I was there before, the focus was completely on the building,” she said. Now, “we can focus on funding those things that the community wants.”

When St. Clair first started at the museum, Williamson was her supervisor. “We were already a team once and we will be again,” Williamson said.

On Nov. 11, Mickenberg held a town hall meeting with members and supporters in which he outlined plans for the struggling museum to reinvent itself as a regional arts center.

At that meeting, Mickenberg said the museum needed to raise at least $1.2 million in the next year to stay viable.

He said Wednesday that the museum has raised more than $500,000 in donations between the date of the meeting and Jan. 1. Because some of the money involved early payment of previous pledges, not all of it goes toward the $1.2 million goal, but “it definitely gets us closer,” he said.

Williamson, who will start Jan. 10, said it will be her job to carry out many of the things Mickenberg talked about at the town hall meeting, including reaching out to corporate donors and holding community focus groups.

Her goals include “more visibility, more communication and dialogue, and of course we need to make sure we offer dynamic programs that bring people to the museum.”

“I know it’s going to be a collaborative effort,” said St. Clair, who will start Jan. 24. “I’m anxious to reconnect with all the members I had good relationships with, and looking forward to hitting the ground running.”