The majority of my visits to museums, art galleries, and other heritage sites are undertaken with people I'm connected with through work, by myself, or with my partner. These visits are normally slow paced and allow for plenty of time for reading and contemplation. I enjoy looking at displays, reading text panels, checking out different … Continue reading Museum Visitor Experience and Learning Styles
Slow Art Day
April 12th 2014 is Slow Art Day. A day dedicated to encouraging people to discover art and the joy of looking at art. The day also emphasizes the idea that people can see and experience art without an expert. Art galleries and museums internationally are hosting Slow Art Day events. Most events are structured to … Continue reading Slow Art Day
Checkout a Person: National Human Library Day
Tomorrow, January 26th 2013, is National Human Library Day in Canada. The day is sponsored by CBC and invites Canadians to interact with 'human books' at 15 libraries and cultural centers across the country. The CBC is also hosting an online component of the program where individuals can interact with human books via webcam, text, … Continue reading Checkout a Person: National Human Library Day
National Archives as a Destination
National Archive Building, WashingtonWhen planning a family trip to Ottawa a visit to Library and Archives Canada (LAC) is on the itinerary of very few Canadians. The lack of visitors center and recent cut to open research hours makes visiting LAC difficult for researchers, let alone tourists. LAC has no formal tourism competent and many … Continue reading National Archives as a Destination
Archival Outreach and Community Based Heritage
Recently I've been spending a lot of time thinking about the role archives can play in community based heritage initiatives. The bulk of my thoughts have centered on the idea that archives have the potential to become community heritage hubs and places of active history. Of course, just because archives have the potential to do … Continue reading Archival Outreach and Community Based Heritage
Community and Relevancy in Rural Museums
The latest issue of Curator: The Museum Journal was recently posted online. This issue contained a number of interesting approaches to issues in the museum field. One article I found particularly interesting was Rhianedd Smith's "Searching for "Community": Making English Rural History Collections Relevant Today." The article can be read online here. Smith's work focuses … Continue reading Community and Relevancy in Rural Museums
Engaging Our Community Conference
On the weekend I spoke at the Engaging Our Community Conference held at Algoma University. The panel I took part in, Beyond Paper: Participatory Past in the Community Archives, focused on the concept of archives as places of engagement. My presentation looked at the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre as an example of an archival institution … Continue reading Engaging Our Community Conference
August 2011 #builtheritage Chat Summary
August's #builtheritage twitter chat focused on under-served communities and how to reach those communities. The chat included great discussion and a couple of interesting side debates about the term preservation. The complete chat transcript can be found here. Next month's #builtheritage chat is slated for September 7th at 4pm and the tentative topic is collaboration. … Continue reading August 2011 #builtheritage Chat Summary