Museum veteran rouses 580,000-square-foot giant

The new Capitol Visitor Center might not be opening if not for the efforts of Terrie Rouse.

Rouse, a lifelong museum director with a knack for reeling in out-of-control projects and budgets, was hired to take control of the CVC almost two years after the center was originally set to open. By the time of her hiring, the CVC had already cost more than twice the original $265 million budgeted by lawmakers.

{mosads}“I’ve sort of developed this reputation for being the person you call when you want to get something done, which means I can take the hits,” said Rouse, 56.

Rouse has her fingers in every nook and cranny of the CVC, from the design of the two 250-seat theaters to sorting out how to feed the thousands who will flow daily through the 550-seat restaurant. She has had her hand in picking the items sold in the center’s two gift shops, and in the choices to display notes from James Madison and other artifacts borrowed from the National Archives.

Lawmakers have showered criticism on the details of the CVC that led to cost overruns, even as they agreed with the grand plan of creating a museum that would serve as an entry point for visitors to the Capitol.

But less than six months after Rouse was hired, Nancy Erickson, secretary of the Senate and chairwoman of the Advisory Committee on the Record of Congress, reveled in how much the native Ohioan had accomplished on the logistical side of the CVC.

“Rouse has been a dynamic force in moving operational issues to the forefront for the House Administration and Senate Rules committees to consider,” Erickson said at a meeting.

While her 5-foot-2-inch height allows Rouse to blend into her surroundings, she possesses a commanding presence. She’s able to be stern, but in such a way that she doesn’t ruffle the feathers of those around her.

Before coming to Washington to work at the $621 million CVC as its chief executive officer of Visitor Services, Rouse was bailing out the Atlanta Ballet. The dance company was acclaimed for its performances, but not for its budget. It had a $1.2 million deficit on an annual budget of $7 million.

“They were having some problems and I helped them work through very tough financial times,” Rouse said.

“The Visitor Center probably hired her a little too late,” joked Carolyn Rouse, an associate professor at Princeton University and Terrie’s cousin. “The budget might not have gotten so high … she doesn’t pull punches.”

Rouse attributes her ability to help companies and projects get back on track to her experience listening to people. She said she listens to their fears, problems and ideas, and then develops a solution.

She’s been honing this ability since she was young. At age 20, as an undergraduate student at Trinity College, Rouse went to Ghana and helped build a school with local women.

“I realized that you have to understand what it means to see people in need, because I think that fundamentally drives your morals and principles,” said Rouse, who grew up in Youngstown, Ohio.

“I came from a family where no one ever said you couldn’t do something, and that has such a lasting impact because so many people tell you that you can’t do something,” Rouse said. “I’m one of those people who got a chance to do what they said they wanted to do in life.”

Acting as executive director, president and CEO, Rouse has worked at the New York Transit Museum, the Children’s Museum of Maine, the Studio Museum of Harlem, the International African-American Museum and the African-American museum in Philadelphia.

{mospagebreak}While providing fiscal triage and directing African-American art museums may seem unrelated, for Rouse the connection couldn’t be clearer.

“To me, economics is really about how people live and how people interact, and that is how I became really involved in the notion of museums, because museums are about people, it’s about material culture, it’s about how we look at objects and things and events and then how we translate that back out to the public,” Rouse said.

Rouse takes measured and graceful steps as she guides an early tour group through the 580,000-square-foot CVC weeks before its official opening on Dec. 2, when it welcomes the first of what is expected to be around 3 million visitors annually.

{mosads}Rouse’s face lights up as she rounds the 93-foot-long centerpiece of an Exhibition Wall fashioned from Colorado marble.

“It’s the interchange of comments and ideas and sparking people to learn more, and the exhibition is built in such a way that you can hit multiple age groups with multiple ways of learning,” Rouse said.

The hall tells the story of the Capitol’s existence through pictorial displays, touch-screen interactive centers and documents like Madison’s notes for the Constitution, the bill establishing the Navy in 1798 and Henry Clay’s notes for the Compromise of 1850.

“All of that is clearly the listening and learning and letting people work through their emotions but keeping your eye on the prize,” she said. “My eye on the prize is we have to get it open and get people engaged.”

But it is not opening day that concerns Rouse, who admits that she’s “a little on the exhausted side,” having worked 10-hour days, seven days a week, for the past year.

“I’m not as worried about [opening day],” she said. “It’s Dec. 3 — that’s the day that I’m worried about. Because in my mind, it’s really getting through the month of December and then the first 18 months. That’ll be quite an experience for us, but we will learn a lot.”