When the National Museum of Industrial History opened last August, it was after years of bureaucracy, fundraising and even controversy. But today it’s becoming known as a tourist destination and is expanding its community involvement and educational programming.

Interim President and CEO Kara Cenni is thrilled to be running the show as NMIH gets on its feet.

“Everybody is really committed to the mission, to the museum and to each other,” she said. “We have a great time working together and we’re really excited to see it succeed.”

From courting donors to developing educational weekend programs for kids, Cenni said, “There’s a lot that has to get done. It takes time, but we’re beginning to see benefits.” In fact, data for the year indicated about 40 percent of visitors are from out-of-state, attracted through national museum programs and social media outreach.

Cenni, originally from Monmouth County, N.J., spent many years with The New Teacher Project, a nonprofit teacher-support program, before moving to the Lehigh Valley in 2014. She has worked part-time with the museum since 2015 in an array of functions, from financial and operations to human resources and information technology. The depth of her immersion in the organization helped prepare her to take the helm with solid programming and an idea of the museum’s future.

Successes thus far are the Iron and Steel and Centennial exhibits, Cenni said, but the biggest underdog has been about textiles.

“A lot of people come into the museum aren’t expecting to see that it is such an important story to the Lehigh Valley. They walk out and are like, ‘That was really amazing.’”

The museum also brings in guest speakers on anything from the aforementioned silk facilities to drone production. Marketing and Outreach Coordinator Glenn Koehler said the current baseball exhibit will feature a guest speaker from a bat manufacturer in Perkesie and the company that built Coca-Cola Park.

This will also tie into the Bethlehem Steel’s own old company baseball team, which recruited and played internationally.

“I feel that baseball can be such a way to bring families together,” said Cenni. “We actually have a corner of the exhibit that is set up with a radio playing the old-time games. I think that aspect of it is going to be something special.”

As exhibits and educational programs continue to roll out, Cenni said her next big goal is to open the now-empty second floor to visitors and continue to improve event rental space.

“As part of our mission, we were geared toward programming but there have been so many groups and individuals who have come out and wanted to rent the space for all kinds of events,” she said, from a shower to alumni groups – with packages available to allow tours during group events.

Cenni and Koehler are also excited about “How it Works” tours, a monthly event when historians explain just that – how steel is made, how steam engines really work or how early automation and computers functioned.

“Our mission here is to educate the public and the youth,”Cenni said. “I very much appreciate the community coming in and educating us – all the stories that we hear of men and women that used to work at the Steel; one man who said he had video of the last five blast furnace pours and he wanted to donate it to the museum. There are so many stories … I would love to get deeper ties to the community and feel like we’re in this together so we can further educate those that are further out.

“Let’s keep the story alive.”