Mashantucket — The Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center has a new permanent executive director, after 21 months without one.

Joe Baker, an Oklahoma native who spent the past six years as executive director at Palos Verdes Art Center in California, started his new role on Tuesday.

Jason Mancini stepped down as the museum's director in December 2017 to become director of Connecticut Humanities. Longtime tribal employee Donna Capoverde served as interim director prior to Baker's arrival, and Capoverde continues to work in the tribe's finance department.

Baker said the job appealed to him because it was an opportunity to live closer to the homeland of his own people, the Lenape, and he feels "a real kinship with the Pequot people."

While the Lenape don't have the water connection of the Pequots, Baker called the tribes "cousins," noting they're both from the northeastern woodlands and shared an early history in terms of experiences with the Dutch, English and French. He feels that nationally, much of the focus on Native people is on the Southwest and that the Northeast is an undertold story.

"I'm very honored and excited about the future of the museum, and working with the community and the tribe to secure the museum's future," Baker said Thursday, after walking around the museum for an interview. "It's a big challenge, but I like challenges. That's part of the appeal."

Those challenges include boosting visitor numbers, establishing a stronger financial position and strengthening the museum's reputation on a national and global scale.

In March, a posting for the position noted that the museum budget fell to $4 million and visitation to 37,000, compared to a $10 million budget and 65,000 visitors in its heyday. Tribal spokeswoman Lori Potter said Thursday the museum receives about 35,000 visitors each year.

Baker met with the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Council on Thursday and said he and the tribe will decide together how to best move forward with the museum. Financially, he said, that will involve talking to corporations and foundations.

"Joe has invigorated cultural organizations through innovative program development, skillful management, and effective fundraising," Tribal Council Chairman Rodney Butler said in a news release Tuesday. "He is a Native American artist with deep commitment to his heritage and the larger world of indigenous cultural expression."

Baker wants the museum to be the center of research in terms of Native thought, and he wants the museum to have a role to play globally when it comes to preservation efforts. He said Native knowledge-keepers "hold a key to some of the answers," adding that studies show land managed by Native people reflects a greater biodiversity.

Baker also spoke about land acknowledgment, or honoring Native land, and noted it's a concept that came from Australia and New Zealand to the U.S. He wants land acknowledgment to be living and sustainable, "rather than just a plaque on the wall."

Baker did a land acknowledgment for the Metropolitan Museum of Art as executive director of the New York-based Lenape Center, a role he said offers the most parallel experience to his new job. He remains the director of the Lenape Center.

Baker holds a master of fine arts degree in painting and drawing, and a bachelor of fine arts degree in design, both from the University of Tulsa.

He spent four years in the U.S. Air Force before working for the Oklahoma Arts Council and then spending the next 13 years or so working as a studio artist. Baker previously has known or worked with many of the artists featured in the Mashantucket Pequot Museum.

"Not only is the history important, but also moving forward, and it's the contemporary artists that carry that tradition forward," he said.

Baker also worked as curator at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, director of community engagement for the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University, and executive director of Longue Vue House and Gardens in New Orleans.

Baker said his interview at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum marked his second time there, after he first visited in 2001. He is a beader, and in 2002 the museum acquired a bandolier bag — a wide-strapped Native American bag — that he made. It's not on display but remains in the collections, and he got to see it when he was interviewed for the position.

e.moser@theday.com