It’s been one long year of ups and downs since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are still wearing our masks and social distancing while anxiously awaiting vaccines and wondering about a "new normal." After all this time, how are you doing? How is it affecting your organization? Are you open? What are you planning for the summer? What are your challenges in staffing, engaging visitors, and the bottom line? Join us for a peer to peer conversation about COVID-19 and the public and local history field in Massachusetts. This conversation will be moderated by Brianne Zulkiewicz, Visitor Services and Administrative Coordinator at Wistariahurst Museum.

Take it outside! 2021 one is the year of the garden as many cultural institutions try to adjust their programming and exhibitions to provide safe and engaging experiences to their patrons. What outdoor activities are you planning this summer? How are you adjusting your usual programming to COVID-19? What exciting new things are you planning? Walking tours, bike tours, gardens, outdoor exhibits, fire pits...tell us when you're going outside and what you're going to do there. Join colleagues from across the state to share your challenges and successes.

See You Online! Acing the virtual conference April 30, 2021, 1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. Conferences and meetings are in full virtual swing! Here at the Mass History Alliance, we’re in the midst of making sure this year’s Mass History Conference on June 7th will be a smashing success. Join MHA’s IT pundit Matt Friedman […]

Does it spark joy? Historical organizations’ priorities change, and storage is overflowing. How do we clean up without getting rid of that which the future will find necessary to know and see? Have you held a spring cleaning? Swept with new brooms? Created collecting policies and found ways to make them stick? Done a project to deaccession and donate or sell items that were previously in your collection? What about paying the fees on those endless gigabytes of digital storage? Join us for a conversation with Stacen Goldman, Curator at the Framingham History Center, and Elly Kalfus, oral historian and founder of Organizing with empathy, about the challenges and satisfactions of using the broom.

How is your Summer going? Conversations on the Commons was our response to the pandemic. Like everyone else, we worked on making hay out of our limitations.

Brainstorm Session: Acknowledging Loss and Archiving Experience in the Wake of Catholic Church Closures July 23, 2021, 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. *new time!* Join historian Margo Shea in a reflective conversation about how historical societies, museums and other history organizations can participate productively in addressing and archiving a history happening in our midst -- […]

We know teachers are stressed and programs are focused on the test.  What are good ways to approach teachers and school programs about creating a local history curriculum? Is it easier to visit the school or have the students visit you? What are fruitful ways in which libraries and historical societies can collaborate and cross-pollinate?

How do local organizations and towns think about Indigenous history and perspective in their own community histories? What are practical ways that we, as members of cultural organizations, can integrate these perspectives into the programs, language, and conversations we have about local history? Join panelists as they discuss the kind of work they do in their art and scholarship and talk about ways to counter Native American erasure and build more nuanced and inclusive narratives about Massachusetts history.

How do academic scholars and local museums and historical societies work together? Has your museum worked with scholars and/or researchers? Do you have a long term working relationship with a researcher or public history scholar? What have they worked on for you? How do academics work with historical societies? Have you (scholar or museum) received a grant to do this work?  What about student researchers and internship programs? What benefits can they provide to museums, and how can museums cultivate these relationships with students and scholars to further their mission and goals?

You’ve probably heard about Critical Race Theory in the news lately, but do you know what it is? Have you addressed it at your museum or historic site? Should you? Do you know how to? What is the difference between Critical Race Theory and African American History? As museums are reimagining their roles and messages in the wake of social, economic, and political changes, join us for a primer on Critical Race Theory and see how to incorporate this work into your own.

Membership: A Must? December 10, 2021, 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. With Carol S. Ward, Executive Director of the Lexington Historical Society, and Dawn Estabrooks Salerno, Executive Director at the Rotch-Jones-Duff House & Garden Museum Does the membership model still work for 2022? Massachusetts Historical Society has just announced that they no longer have a […]

Join us for our latest Conversation on the Common where we tackle the topic of “Teaching New England Slavery to Kids.” Kristin Gallas is the project manager for education development at the Tsongas Industrial History Center and recently published Interpreting Slavery with Children and Teens.