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Conversations on the Commons: Neutrality and Engagement for Historical Organizations
October 21, 2022 @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
Neutrality and Engagement for Historical Organizations
October 21, 2022, 12:00 – 1:30 p.m.
Museum people are talking a lot about whether their organizations should be politically “neutral” in their presentation and interpretation of history. But what is neutrality? Or what does it mean for museums and historical organizations to be engaged in the questions that confront us today, such as diversity, climate change, or violence? How do organizations decide on their programming? Veteran museum directors Gloria Greis and Tom Putnam join us for a conversation that tackles the question of “neutrality” from a practical or process-oriented rather than prescriptive direction. How does a museum decide what exhibits or programs to present? How do you bring a variation of viewpoints into your work? Do you consider the political import of what you are doing and how does that work? Do you get pressure and how do you deal with it? Who do you look to for examples of good work or best practices? What is your process of going from idea to reality? Join us and share your experiences!
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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- Gloria Polizzotti Greis been Executive Director of the Needham History Center & Museum since June 2002. She has worked in museums since 1985. She has also taught both Anthropology and Museums Studies at the college level, and had experience teaching in a museum setting with high school and elementary school classes. Dr Greis is a Needham resident. She holds a PhD in Anthropology, specializing in the archaeology of prehistoric Europe. She is the author of two books on archaeology; a book and three films on local history; several articles on history, archaeology and various other topics; and writes a weekly local history blog. She is Chair of the Needham Historical Commission, sits on several municipal committees and nonprofit boards, and is an elected Fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
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- Tom Putnam is the former Executive Director of the Concord Museum and former Director of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. He served for eight years as a member of the board of directors of Mass Humanities, the Commonwealth’s state humanities council including two years as Chair. A graduate of Bowdoin College and the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, he was a Thomas J. Watson Fellow in Quebec, Canada; a Fulbright Scholar in Senegal, West Africa; and the recipient of a Harry S. Truman Scholarship. He began his career teaching history in a public high school in Maine. And for close to a decade, he directed a federally funded Upward Bound program helping low-income high school students from throughout New England to be the first in their families to attend college.
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.