Mashantucket — Five months after closing for the first time, the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center is poised to reopen next week, its staff leaner, its membership rolls healthier, its focus sharper.

At least that’s how Jason Mancini, the museum’s director, sees it.

“We’ve got a great new crew,” Mancini said Wednesday in an interview at the museum. “We’ve got more corporate and academic relationships than ever before — with the state departments of education in Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York, with the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts — relationships we should have had all along.”

In advance of the actual reopening May 15, the museum will host a by-invitation-only preview from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday. Opening weekend will feature a special presentation on the museum’s exhibits and the start of a dugout canoe project that will continue for four weekends.

The museum will resume the hours it kept before its Dec. 1 closing: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. Admission prices will be the same, too, ranging from $12 for youths to $20 for adults.

Despite a slight increase in the cost of annual memberships — they range from $55 for individuals to $95 for families — the number of members has increased by 25 percent since December and now stands at about 900, according to Mancini.

“We undertook a membership drive after the closing,” he said. “Having a better understanding of who our visitors are and what they expect is very important. … I’m heartened by the level of support from outside Mashantucket — from other tribes, educators, cultural organizations. Mystic Seaport has been great, offering any assistance we need.”

After the shutdown, the first seasonal closing in the museum’s 17-year history, a staff of nearly 60 was cut to 11. The new staff includes 15 full-timers and 19 seasonal part-timers.

“If we need to hire more to accommodate school groups, for example, we will,” Mancini said. “We’ll adjust to whatever’s needed.

He recalled that when the museum opened in 1998, it employed more than 250 people.

Mancini has been charged with laying the foundation for the museum’s first board of directors.

“I’ve had a lot of preliminary conversations about an organizational structure,” he said. “I’ll be providing some scenarios to the (Mashantucket Pequot) tribal council.”

Some prospective directors have inquired about serving on the museum board, Mancini said.

The canoe project, “Mission Mishoon,” will afford museum visitors a glimpse of authentic Indian craftsmanship. Canoemakers from the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head will fashion the canoe from a 36-foot-long tulip poplar log supplied by the Comrie Sawmill in Ledyard. The process involves burning the log.

“Once it’s done, I’d like to paddle it down the Mystic River to see our friends at Mystic Seaport,” Mancini said.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com

Twitter: @bjhallenbeck