With Carolyn Goldstein, Public History and Community Archives Program Manager at University Archives & Special Collections, Healey Library at UMass Boston, and Susan Navarre, Executive Director of the Fitchburg Historical Society
As historical organizations increasingly take on the role of relevance to a wider audience, we need to collect different “stuff” from a more diverse population. Perhaps your town has changed over the past century and your collections do not reflect the local histories of people and groups who are now a vital part of your community. How do you go about enriching your collections with their stories and connecting them to older histories? What are the obstacles and successes you have met with? How have you partnered with different individuals and groups to make sure your collections do not only speak to the distant past? Join us on Dec. 9, 12:00-1:30 for a conversation on the art of proactive collecting of community history in the twenty-first century.
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.
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- Carolyn Goldstein coordinates the Mass. Memories Road Show and teaches public history at UMass Boston. Together with Andrew Elder, she is the co-developer of RoPA, the Roadmap for Participatory Archiving. RoPA is an online resource that guides libraries and cultural organizations through the process of collaborating with community members to plan engaging and inclusive participatory archiving events and to create digital collections.
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- Susan Navarre has been the Executive Director of the Fitchburg Historical Society since June 2013. She studied Art History at the graduate level at Boston University; after receiving a B.A. in Art History from Bryn Mawr College. She has been a project humanist for MA Humanities-funded programs and has spoken at the Massachusetts History Conference, where she is currently on the organizing committee. Under her leadership, the Fitchburg Historical Society has received Bridge Sponsorships and other funding from Mass Humanities. She is currently active as a board member for the Fitchburg Cultural Alliance and member of the Fitchburg Cultural Initiative Advisory Committee and Board of Directors of Mass History Alliance. She has spoken on Fitchburg history at Fitchburg State University, the Fitchburg Senior Center, to the City Council, and for numerous local clubs. Susan lives in Leominster and grew up in the Detroit area.
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.