Zachary Yarosz

Zachary Yarosz is the lead in the Exhibits and Museum/ Aquarium Space Maintenance at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. His responsibilities include the general upkeep of live displays, immersed areas, and public way finding spaces. Tasks for Zachary can include installing habitat blinds for puffin nesting, tinkering with graphics and interactives, cleaning the aquarium’s suspended whale skeleton, and upkeeping and repairing identifications, murals, and signage. Zachary’s department handles the grey area between Habitat/ Fabrications and Facilities/ Custodial. At some point, Zachary has to interact with or at least work near all of the animals and people at the aquarium.

As a child, Zachary’s father bred tropical fish, which began his early relationship with live exhibits. In college, he studied liberal arts and graduated with a sculpture/ art degree. Currently, Zachary is taking all the courses in CAD and drafting that he can. After graduating from college, Zachary gained experience working in general exhibits, events, and production tech work for both museums and entertainment. He also has experience working in carpentry and construction, furniture restoration, community theater set and prop development, and with his own personal artwork. He credits his experience in the bartending, restaurant, and service industry with giving him valuable people skills.

Zachary’s favorite part of his job is that if he does everything right, no one will know that anything was ever done at all. He never really had any role models as he was exploring the field, and he’d like to change the fact that the atmosphere can be very guarded, and newcomers are often left to figure it out for themselves. He found that his wide and varied set of skills and experience, combined with patience and constant exploring, have led to his success in his current position. Zachary’s favorite animals are otters, because of their playful behaviors and innovative tool use.