She was bitten by the museum bug at the age of eight, and the love of old things has driven Marty Brent ever since. It was Brent's parents who gave her her love of museums. Now, she's director of Toronto's own Black Creek Pioneer Village. "A living museum," as Brent calls it.

    Brent's parents took her on dozens of family vacations to the Smithsonian, Paul Revere's house, and George Washington's home, among other sites. In her teens, she visited the Louvre, Windsor Castle, the British Museum, and many other historical collections.

    But it was Black Creek that won Brent's heart. Six years ago, she was hired on as director, after she graduated from York's Schulich School of Business' voluntary sector management certificate program.

   With a degree in history and a master's in museum studies, Brent, who "always wanted to work on the other side of the glass," had three job offers here and abroad, but chose Black Creek because "it's an incredible treasure.

    "Black Creek focuses on social history which is exactly what I'm intested in -- how people's lives improved and changed, and the material culture of everyday life," Brent says.

    While her education fitted her previous job as a policy officer with the Ministry of Culture, she wanted more -- working in a museum rather than acting as a consultant. So, in l989, the mother of three returned to school.

    "Ten years ago, I would have told you you were totally crazy if you had told me I would take business courses," she says. "Back then, most of us who worked for cultural institutions were specialists -- good in general ways in museums. What we didn't have were business skills."

    The certificate program no longer exists, but it equipped Brent to handle Black Creek's revenue of $4 million per year, and to follow her dream: "I get to work behind the glass all the time!"