Conversations on the Commons: 12 months and counting of COVID
Online MA, United StatesIt’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.
Conversations on the Commons: Take it outside!
Online MA, United StatesTake 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.
Conversations on the Commons: See You Online!
Online MA, United StatesSee 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 […]
Conversations on the Commons: Does it spark joy?
Online MA, United StatesDoes 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.
2021 Mass History Conference
Online MA, United StatesThe Mass History Conference will be held online on June 7, 2021, with additional workshops and networking events on the Mass History Commons on six other dates in June. Engaging public history, including local history activities, is crucial to the civic well-being of our communities, our Commonwealth, and our nation. The conference will focus on history as a community activity, with more than fifteen sessions and workshops, a plenary by community history scholar Diana Becerra, a Commons area with tabling, and plenty of opportunities to meet and greet, network, exchange ideas and hatch plans and collaborations. Due to ongoing concerns about Covid-19, this year’s conference will be held online. But as soon as we can, we will return to meeting each other face to face!
Cafe on the Commons: Teaching History
Online MA, United StatesThis networking session may be of interest to teachers, archivists and librarians, docents and demonstrators, and all public history practitioners who engage with audiences for the purposes of teaching.
Class on the Commons: Mass Humanities Grants, Workshops, and Resources for Small History Organizations
Online MA, United StatesPresentations from panelists will be followed by a structured workshop discussion focused on attendees’ resource needs, reducing barriers to access, and opportunities to build greater capacity among small- and medium-sized history organizations.
Cafe on the Commons: Working with History
Online MA, United StatesThis networking session may be of interest to museum professionals and volunteers, historical society members and volunteers, and all public history practitioners who regularly work with history in its many representations.
Class on the Commons: Taking STEPS Together
Online MA, United StatesThis 2-hour, hands-on workshop includes self-assessment activities to assess your organization against STEPS. In addition, we will brainstorm and network possible collaborations, resources, and funding sources when forming a STEPs cohort. Representatives from PVHN and AASLH will provide context and case study examples to guide participant engagement. Participants will leave the workshop with the connections and tools to form and/or join a regional STEPS effort.
Cafe on the Commons: Preserving History
Online MA, United StatesThis networking session may be of interest to curators, archivists, librarians, building preservationists, historical society members and volunteers, and all public history and preservation practitioners who work to preserve history.
Class on the Commons: Managing Preservation and Access to Public Records with SHRAB
Online MA, United StatesTopics covered will include: an overview of SHRAB programming and what resources are available to you to help you preserve your records; a general introduction to the municipal records landscape – from privacy and confidentiality to understanding the Massachusetts Public Records Law; insights from two local municipal archives and how they provide access to town records; and an open Q&A session with a representative from our state’s Public Records Division on making public records requests.
Conversations on the Commons: One Year Later
Online MA, United StatesHow 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.