Join Bob Perry, Executive Director at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation, and Saria Sweeney, Community Programming Coordinator at Old Colony History Museum, for a conversation about how history organizations can broaden their base of support through programming that moves well beyond the traditional tours and exhibits. Yoga? Maker spaces? Music? Bike repair? Cooking? What exciting new (or long-term) programs do you offer to your community? How did you develop your program? How is it funded and staffed? What is community response? And what do’s and don’ts can you share with your history colleagues across the Commonwealth?
Registration is free. REGISTER HERE.
This Conversation will be livestreamed. We will do our best to monitor your questions and comments during the livestream. A recording will be publicly available in the Conversations on the Commons Archive.
(Featured image courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum.)
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- Saria Sweeney has been the Community Programming Coordinator at the Old Colony History Museum since 2016, growing alongside the Museum’s program offerings from a part-time to full-time employee and now facilitating over 100 programs a year.
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- Bob Perry is Executive Director at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation, a small industrial museum in a historic textile mill in Waltham, Massachusetts where he’s led the organization since June 2015. Bob’s path to museum work was wholly unconventional. He spent 30 years in food service, the first 8 years managing at Herrell’s Ice Cream and the last 22 at The Elephant Walk, Cambodian and French restaurants which he co-founded in 1991. After leaving restaurant life behind in 2013 Bob led Local First organizations in Brookline and Waltham and the revival of the Watch City Steampunk Festival. A native Bostonian, Bob grew up in Asia before finishing high school in Connecticut and finally returning to the Boston area for keeps upon starting college. His happy home includes two dogs and two cats – all rescues – and for fun he races sailboats year-round on Boston Harbor.
Questions? Be in touch with Caroline Littlewood: commons@masshistoryalliance.org
Conversations on the Commons
Where people from Massachusetts history organizations get to vent, empathize, laugh, complain, think, collaborate, brainstorm, plan, and in general be up to no good.