Living the Life: Q & A with Jim Donahue, Curator of Historic Landscapes & Horticulture at the Preservation Society

Newport Life talked with Jim Donahue, who is in charge of decorating the Newport Mansions for the holiday season. Jim is giving behind the scenes tours of the Breakers on select dates in December.

All photos are courtesy of the Preservation Society of Newport County

Q: Tell us a bit about yourself. How did you come to be in the Newport area? 

A: Newport just happened. I am from Massachusetts. I still live in Massachusetts. So, Newport was never really part of the (job search) equation, but it’s a nice place!

Q: How has your background in horticulture and landscape influenced your job with the Preservation Society of Newport County? What led you to getting involved with the Newport Mansions? 

A: I sort of fell into it. I have a background in landscape architecture and was doing a lot of residential landscape design. Upscale swimming pools and residential masterplans. I became bored with it and happened to see a job available with the Preservation Society of Newport County as a horticulturist. Long story short, I took that job and worked my way up from horticulturist to Curator of Landscapes.

Having a background in horticulture and in design means that I don’t only look at things aesthetically but also practically. Meaning, if something is going to work horticulturally, I know my plant material, so I know it will. That’s not always the case. A lot of landscape architects actually don’t know plant material and might choose the wrong thing. So having a horticultural background really helps in any sort of landscape design endeavor.

Q: After 20 years, how has your role at the Preservation Society of Newport County evolved?

A: Working at a nonprofit, people wear a lot of hats. You don’t just do one thing week in and week out. As I started working at Green Animals, I also got asked to work at the Newport Flower Show and from there, I became Horticulture Chair of the Newport Flower Show. Then I was asked to start doing Christmas, and I’ve been doing Christmas for the last 18 years. Things just sort of evolve according to your skillset so I think that’s true of everyone who works at the Preservation Society.

Q: What goes into decorating one of the Newport Mansions for the holiday season? How many houses does the preservation society decorate? How many people are involved?

A: Well, it’s an organization-wide effort. We not only have myself and volunteers and sub-contractors who do decorating, but we also have the gardens and landscapes department, which provides floral decorations and in-house grown poinsettias and other plant material. Special Events is heavily involved in organizing events around the holidays, as is the Museum Experience department, which oversees how guests experience the holidays. So, it’s really a company-wide effort to get the holidays underway.

Q: What can visitors expect from a behind the scenes tour of the Breakers? 

A: It’s going to be a pleasant tour. I will go from room to room and discuss why the themes were chosen and how we went about putting it together and how it’s changed over the years.

Q: How do you make the holiday decorations different and exciting for those who visit every year? 

A: I think it becomes a tradition for people to come to the mansions every holiday season, so we make sure we mix it up and it’s not exactly the same. Things might fall within the same theme or rooms might stay within a color scheme, but I can guarantee it’s different every year. We make sure to mix it up so it doesn’t get stale, so it’s clean and fresh looking.

Q: What’s a challenge you’ve had to overcome while decorating an iconic historic home? 

A: Well, especially in the case of Marble House, the interior decoration is so over the top and intense that it’s really difficult to have decorations that make an impact. We’ve had to learn to really compete with the house and do enough, so it shows up and doesn’t look lost or look cheap in comparison to the house.  So, we have a huge volume of lights and a huge volume of decorations to compete with the house. And the colors have to be right, so they don’t fade away.

Q: Do you have any tips or tricks for people trying to better their decorating or landscaping skills this holiday season? 

A: I think most people fall into the habit of having one or two things that they’ve collected over time and there’s no cohesion. I think the real strength of something lies in having multiples of an ornament or a design element so that it all hangs together and has some impact. So many residential settings, you know, you have things you’ve collected over the years – kids’ school ornaments or whatever – and you use them all but it doesn’t hang together. So, I would say get something in quantity that will tie the whole thing together.

I generally try to get the wall color (for a room) onto the tree somehow and usually I stack the interior of the tree with that wall color. Just so it ties to the walls and also blocks light coming through. Oftentimes, our trees are in front of windows, and they’re artificial trees – we have to use them, per fire code – so I hate seeing that interior structure of the tree. I like to block it and a good way to do that is to use the wall color so it blends.

Q: What are some holiday things you like to do in or around the Newport area? 

A: I’m so busy with the holidays, I get my fill at work. So I don’t tend to do a lot of other holiday events. But I do think if you are looking for holiday cheer, Newport is the place to come.

Read more installments from our Living the Life series, spotlighting people and happenings around town.