The first in a quarterly series of Conversations on the Commons: Show and Tell edition! March 5, 2021, 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. Commons Show and Tell! Share with us the best or most intriguing object or archival piece in your collection. Do you have a white elephant? An item around which you have been […]

From bake sales to the annual calendar, most historical organizations occasionally sell something to raise funds. Many have also hosted someone’s event, upon occasion. But what does it take to make this a regular part of  your income?  What’s involved in having a shop, merchandising your collections, or running an event or wedding venue? Have you tried it? Where do you have things printed or made? What are some questions you have? Do you stock 200 logo tees or work with print on demand suppliers? How are you doing at creating income?

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.