Though Simon is best known internationally as a musician, he has worked as an educator, museum director, and consultant for historic programs all over the USA and Britain. Since his first experience as a Park Ranger researching the military history of Alcatraz Island in 1980, he has held managerial positions at the Half Moon Visitor Center in North Carolina, the Southport Maritime Museum, and the Tryon Palace Historic Sites and Gardens. He is particularly proud of his work reviving the Afro-Caribbean Jonkonnu Festival in his adopted town of New Bern, North Carolina, a project that received coverage from National Geographic and other worldwide media. He has also created and implemented historic education programs at dozens of other cultural institutions, including the following:
Aberdeen Maritime Museum — Scotland
Bellamy Mansion — Wilmington, North Carolina
Cameron Art Museum — Wilmington, North Carolina
Cape Fear Museum — Wilmington, North Carolina
CSS Neuse Historic Site — Kinston, North Carolina
Discovery Point — Dundee, Scotland
Exploris — Raleigh, North Carolina
Historic Bath — North Carolina
Honolulu Academy of Art — Hawai’i
Kamehameha Schools, Honolulu — Hawai’i
Kizhi Island Open-Air Museum — Russia
Le Chasse Maree — Douarnenez, France
Mariners’ Museum — Newport News, Virginia
Museum of the Cape Fear — Fayetteville, North Carolina
Mystic Seaport Museum — Mystic, Connecticut
Niagara League/Erie Maritime Museum — Erie, Pennsylvania
North Carolina Museum of History — Raleigh, North Carolina
Pennsbury Manor — Morrisville, Pennsylvania
Roanoke Island Historic Site — Manteo, North Carolina
Royal Danish Naval Museum — Copenhagen, Denmark
Somerset Place — Creswell, North Carolina
South Street Seaport Museum — New York, NY
Swedish National Maritime Museum — Stockholm, Sweden
Texas Maritime Museum — Rockport, TexasFestivals & Music Events:North Carolina Seafood Festival — Morehead City, North Carolina
Celtic Nations Festival — Lake Charles, Louisiana
Thalian Hall / Wilmington Symphony — Wilmington, North Carolina
Neuse River Day — New Bern, North Carolina
Simon has a perspective on maritime history education that comes from decades of not only studying the culture of the sea, but living it – he has been a crew member for the schooners Pioneer and Lettie G. Howard, sloop Clearwater, barque Elissa, brig Niagara, and sailed transatlantic on the Polish Sea Scout sail training vessel Zawisza Czarny. Simon combines a scholar’s background knowledge of bygone culture with the hands-on experience of someone who has practiced traditional arts and skills. He uses his unique abilities to create programs that transfer this knowledge to new generations, and he has successfully written grant proposals that have helped make these ideas a reality in classrooms.
If you are interested in knowing what he can do for your group or institution, contact him at fullersteaching@yahoo.com.
The Musical Historian 