2021 Annual Conference & Awards for Excellence

2020 GHHN Virtual Conference & Awards for Excellence

Thank you to all our supporters, partners, presenters, and participants at our first ever Virtual Conference - you helped us to have a fantastic event! Check back soon for more exciting information about the 2021 Conference!

Check out the #GHHNVCON20 Interactive E-Program!

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Week One Recordings: 9/23
FUNDERS’ PANEL
Featuring representatives from Arts Westchester, Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area/Hudson River Valley Greenway, Humanities NY, New York State Archives, and the Preservation League of New York State
Moderated by GHHN, the Funder's Panel is a discussion with representatives from a variety of funding organizations to discuss current trends. The Funders will share new initiatives they are exploring, how COVID-19 has impacted their funding priorities, and what the Funders think the future holds for history and heritage organizations.

Week Two Recordings: 9/30
A CONVERSATION ON CREATIVITY
Linda Norris, International Coalition of Sites of Conscience & Independent Museum Consultant; and Rainey Tisdale, Independent Museum Consultant
Join Linda Norris and Rainey Tisdale, co-authors of “Creativity in Museum Practice”, for a conversation about creativity. Drawing from a wide range of research on creativity as well
as insights from today’s most creative museum leaders, Linda and Rainey present a set of practical principles about how museum workers at any level - not just those in “creative positions”- can make a place for creativity in their daily practice.

YOUNG PROFESSIONALS AND THE FUTURE OF MUSEUMS
Kelsey Brow, King Manor Museum; Sierra Van Ryck deGroot, Poster House; Brooke Krancer, upcoming Cole Fellow at Thomas Cole National Historic Site; and Roberto Chavez, New York Transit Museum & New-York Historical Society
Moderated by Kelsey Brow, this panel discussion featuring young museum professionals will explore what the future of museums could and should be.

HISTORY RESPONDS
Rebecca Klassen, New-York Historical Society
Rebecca Klassen, Associate Curator of Material Culture at the New-York Historical Society, will discuss their History Responds Initiative and the materials N-YHS is currently collecting around the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests.

Week Three Recordings: 10/7
MUSEUMS AS A MEDIUM FOR SOCIETAL CHANGE
Stephanie Johnson-Cunningham, Museum Hue
In this discussion, Johnson-Cunningham will shed light on her work through Museum Hue and share the ways she and other museum professionals are boldly responding to current issues relating to race through narratives, programs, exhibitions and services. She will address the critical ways museums can help shape, define and preserve today for the future.

RUNNING WITH SCISSORS: THE TRANSFORMATION OF A LIVING HISTORY SITE
Franklin Vagnone, Twisted Preservation Cultural Consulting After leading New York City's Historic House Trust for 8 years, Frank Vagnone took on the effort to transform Old Salem Museums & Gardens (OSMG) and The Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA), located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In this illustrated presentation Vagnone will show the context fueling and driving these changes. It is a complicated story shown in an open and fiscally transparent manner. Frank says, "Far from an isolated and unique situation, my goal in presenting this synopsis of our analysis, processes, and results is to empower other historic sites to address their particular issues directly and thoughtfully. Merely tweaking a system that is out-of-date and dysfunctional will inevitably fail. One must, I suspect, from the outset, anticipate ending up with something entirely different from that which came before. That possibility is the new normal."

Week Four: 10/14
Click on the video below to watch the virtual presentation of the 2020 Awards for Excellence! To learn more about the awardees and their projects, please visit: 2020 Awards for Excellence Winners

Week Five Recordings: 10/21
WHY DIGITAL WILL LEAD THE FUTURE OF MUSEUMS
Eric Longo, Museum Computer Network
Join Eric Longo, Executive Director of MCN (Museum Computer Network), for a discussion on how museum professional associations have an opportunity to be agents of change and to act as a catalyst to support museums in transitioning to the new operating paradigm because of the opportunities afforded by digital technologies.

INTERPRETING ENSLAVEMENT AT HISTORIC SITES
Lauren Brincat, Preservation Long Island; Donnamarie Barnes, Sylvester Manor Educational Farm; Elizabeth Bradley, Historic Hudson Valley
Join Lauren Brincat, Donnamarie Barnes, and Elizabeth Bradley for a panel discussing different methods for interpreting, presenting, and engaging audiences in discussion about enslavement at historic sites in the North. Preservation Long Island’s Jupiter Hammond Project, Historic Hudson Valley’s People not Property interactive website, and work done at Sylvester Manor Educational Farm in conjunction with the Slave Dwelling Project and the Plain Sight Project will all be discussed.

THE FUTURE OF MUSEUM STUDIES PROGRAMS PANEL
Gretchen Sorin, Cooperstown Graduate Program in Museum Studies, SUNY Oneonta; Andrew Saluti, Graduate Program in Museum Studies, Syracuse University; Greg Stevens, Master of Arts in Museum Professions Program, Seton Hall University
Hear from three museum studies graduate programs – Cooperstown Graduate Program, Syracuse University, and Seton Hall University – as they discuss the types of student interests coming to the respective programs (curatorial, development, education, etc); how there may be a potential shift in the museum field; and how their graduate program is addressing these needs and preparing students to join the workforce.

FREE THE MUSEUM
Andrea Jones, Peak Experience Lab; Emma Thorne-Christy, Exhibition Designer and Activist Artist
A museum is not just a building, it’s a way of thinking. Now is the PERFECT TIME to break free of overly restrictive, overly elitist definitions about what a museum does and where. Join us as we discuss "Free the Museum" - an initiative to activate the “museum experience” in the world around us, transforming everyday places into sites of engagement, reflection, healing, activism, and informal learning. Learn tactics and strategies to break down barriers between the museum and the people in an age when our buildings have become problematic and arguably unsafe.

Week Six Recordings: 10/28
PANEL DISCUSSION ON COMPLEX HISTORIES, MEMORIALIZATION, AND AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT
Amy Hufnagel, Harriet Beecher Stowe Center; Dr. Will Walker, Cooperstown Graduate Program in Museum Studies, SUNY Oneonta; Katie Leo, Facing History and Ourselves
This moderated panel will explore issues of collective memory, memorialization, and how historic sites can grapple with complex moments in human history. The discussion will address memorials related to settler colonialism, "controversial" monuments and memorials, how these issues play out at historic sites, and how we explore these issues in schools and with children.

ALICE AUSTEN HOUSE AND LGBTQ+ INCLUSIVE CURRICULUM
Victoria Munro, Alice Austen House
Join Victoria Munro, Executive Director of the Alice Austen House, a nationally designated site of LGBTQ history and the only museum in America to represent the work of one women photographer, Alice Austen, to discuss the role of museums in arts and intersectionality, activism, history and identity in museum education for LGBTQ+ youth. Munro will present AAH teen programs which look deeply into the freedoms provided by museum education as opposed to a classroom environment which create pathways for equitable and sustainable models for learning and exploring LGBTQ+ storytelling.

CREATIVITY INCUBATOR PANEL DISCUSSION WITH THE MUSEUM MAVERICKS
Kristin Herron, New York State Council on the Arts; Fabiana Chiu-Rinaldi, New York State Council on the Arts; Andrea Jones, Peak Experience Lab; Linda Norris, International Coalition of Sites of Conscience & Independent Museum Consultant; Rainey Tisdale, Independent Museum Consultant; Franklin Vagnone, Twisted Preservation.
Moderated by Kristin Herron and Fabiana Chiu-Rinaldi of the NYSCA Museum Program, this panel featuring the NYSCA/GHHN CI Museum Mavericks will explore the statewide impact of the NYSCA/GHHN Creativity Incubator program and how the current climate has affected the museum community but may have created opportunities for creativity as well.

The 2020 Virtual Conference is made possible with the support of

Platinum Level Partners