Conner Prairie's president retiring from post

For its first 25 years, Conner Prairie, the interactive learning campus in Fishers, rigidly adhered to historical accuracy, CEO Ellen Rosenthal said.

The scenes defied anachronisms, but Rosenthal said the lessons had no spark. People were lectured at but not engaged.

Take Conner Prairie's farm animals, for example. A historical breeding cycle meant animals were born every year in March, a month before the outdoor museum opened for the year.

So visitors could only see the animals, all grown up, wandering far out in a field.

Instead, Conner Prairie scrapped the breeding cycle, opting to birth the animals in the summer. People could watch the process, hold the animals and feel the heartbeats.

Historically accurate? Maybe not in the literal sense. But authentic? Yes.

Visitors still learned about life on a centuries-old farm, Rosenthal said, but this way, they were part of it.

"You don't just watch someone bake a pie; you roll the biscuits yourself," Rosenthal said.

Transforming Conner Prairie from a place of lectures to one of experiences is the legacy of Rosenthal, officials said. She is retiring as CEO of Conner Prairie at the end of the year after 10 years at its helm.

The board of directors announced her decision in a press release Thursday, crediting Rosenthal with building Conner Prairie from a traditional museum into the interactive experience it is today.

"Ellen has mixed emotions about her decision but considered it at great length before arriving at her conclusion," Conner Prairie Board of Directors Chairman Christopher Clapp said in a statement. "Her passion to engage and inspire learning has enhanced Conner Prairie's reputation locally and globally. Ellen has accomplished many of the initiatives that she set out to address and feels it is time to turn her attention solely to her family."

Rosenthal assumed leadership of Conner Prairie, a nonprofit founded in 1975, in 2003 and was named president and CEO in 2005.

Officials said visits to the site expanded considerably under Rosenthal's tenure, growing from about 50,000 annual visitors in 2005 to 360,000 annual visitors today with a budget of nearly $12 million.

Under Rosenthal's purview, Conner Prairie raised $4.5 million to open the outdoor experience "Civil War Journey: Raid on Indiana," which used historical actors, sounds and sets to place visitors in the middle of a southern Indiana Civil War battle.

"What if they taught baseball the way they teach history or science, where you only learned about it and never got to try it out? How boring it would seem?" Rosenthal said. "If you get to be in a historical experience, touch everything, feel it, smell it, run your fingers through it. It becomes much more meaningful."

Conner Prairie also won the National Medal from the Institute for Museum and Library Services and became Indiana's only Smithsonian-affiliated museum during Rosenthal's time as CEO.

"She has absolutely been willing to take risks," said Cathy Ferree, vice president of exhibits, programs, interpretations and facilities at Conner Prairie. "She is very supportive of her staff being creative and taking chances."

Ferree noted the 1859 Balloon Voyage the staff unveiled during Rosenthal's tenure, which sends visitors into the air. The balloon features photo backdrops that simulate an Indiana town square in 1859 and instructs on the science behind flying a hot air balloon.

"Flying literally 350 feet into the air is not something you would normally expect from an institution like ours," Ferree said.

Duane Brodt, spokesman for Conner Prairie, said the board of directors has hired a national search firm to find a candidate to replace Rosenthal.

Rosenthal earned $200,015 as CEO in 2013, according to the nonprofit's financial report for that year.

Call Star reporter Madeline Buckley at (317) 444-6083. Follow her on Twitter: @Mabuckley88.