Lāth Carlson, the former executive director of Seattle’s Living Computers Museum + Labs, is returning to the city to head up another institution, as executive director and CEO of the National Nordic Museum.
Carlson, a seasoned museum professional, spent the past five years as executive director of The Museum of the Future in Dubai, where he oversaw the completion of the museum’s iconic circular building, 60,000 square feet of exhibits, technology systems and more. He announced he was leaving in a LinkedIn post last week.
“Lāth is a remarkable global leader in the museum world, and we are excited to welcome him to the National Nordic Museum and back to Seattle,” said Jay Bruns, president of the museum’s board of trustees, in a news release Thursday. “We are thrilled he will lead our cherished institution and look forward to his vision, innovation, and the success we will achieve together.”
In 2015, Carlson was recruited by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen to be the first executive director of Living Computers, and he spent more than three years at the institution before leaving in 2019. The museum, which had been closed since just before the pandemic in 2020, announced in June that it would not reopen and the Allen estate is auctioning computer artifacts and more items from Allen’s collection starting this week.
During his time at Living Computers, Carlson hosted GeekWire for discussions about saving historic machines; the museum’s expansion into contemporary interactive exhibits; and the opening of a dedicated Apple exhibit.
At the National Nordic Museum, Carlson is taking over for retiring Executive Director and CEO Eric Nelson, who spent 17 years with the organization. The museum in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood originally opened in 1980 and moved into a new building in 2018. It serves as a museum and community gathering space celebrating Nordic life from the past, present and future.
Carlson, who also spent time from 2012 to 2015 as vice president of exhibits and content development at The Tech Museum of Innovation in Silicon Valley, is considered a leader in museum innovation and technology.
“I’m looking forward to expanding the reach of the National Nordic Museum’s focus on innovation into areas like education, housing, governance, wellness, and sports,” he said in a news release. “The Nordic Innovation Summit is already a great success and there are opportunities to expand it even further.”
He’s also looking forward to returning from the Middle East to Seattle and the Pacific Northwest.
“Like our Nordic ancestors who arrived in the Pacific Northwest and felt immediately at home, my family has always felt like this is where we belonged,” Carlson said. “I’m looking forward to commuting to work by bike and ferry again, catching up on all the new IPAs I’ve missed while living abroad, and snowboarding outdoors on a mountain with real snow rather than on sand dunes.”
