Thread by @LWieck

Excited to kick off #AASLH2020 day 2 with another great panel on community engagement!

I LOVE when people start by telling us how their thinking about their panel has shifted. Because let's be real - this always happens. I love when people lean into this. #AASLH2020

Goal of panel: to radically re-think what it is museums have to offer communities; how can organizations better support communities. Hoping that audience will feel inspired and empowered to take a risk to make change #AASLH2020

@anichellemitch: promising honesty and realness in this panel; encouraging us to think of ourselves as individuals and not just members of an institution.

yes! I'm so here for this! #AASLH2020

Participants comparing pre- and post- covid engagement/outreach tactics in their institutions - I'm loving this recognition of how much things have changed. (maybe this is just nice in contrast to academia's continued push for normality?)
#AASLH2020

@anichellemitch speaking about her work at National WWII Museum in NOLA - doesn't have a big community needed to start with community repair instead of community outreach. #AASLH2020

.@anichellemitch talking about NOLA libraries checking out passes to the museum to local population (love when libraries do this!). Also speaking to taking museum programs TO the community. Use local spaces (e.g. NOLA Rec Dept) for programming, and vice versa. #AASLH2020

.@anichellemitch - Family Block Party programming - evening program at museum bringing in local pop.

"if we're doing local engagement, we need local involvement" and importance of hiring in local folks into museum staff, links you into new networks #AASLH2020

.@Museumorphosis getting supa close to his mic so everyone can hear 🎉 #AASLH2020 :D

.@Museumorphosis speakingnow about working at Historical Seaport (Coastal WA, OR, and CA) - their audiences was highly dispersed, work to develop for long-term plan for outreach and ticket sales; how to get locals involved in doing this outreach? #AASLH2020

.@Museumorphosis more engagement from small comms vs. larger cities? doing research on local institutions that have greater reach in these areas & trying to partner with them, since their boats are only coming through cities once a year. Linking in to local traditions #AASLH2020

.@Museumorphosis building reciprocal relationships to co-promote local events in nearby cities along with bringing the local into their experiences they're offering. Bringing local historians on the boats; linking in to local festivals; unique programming at diff sites #AASLH2020

.@Museumorphosis - incorporating naturalist talks, local music, partnership with places like atlas obscura, local liquor/beer sales; picking up edgier punk rock crowd. :) #AASLH2020

"we got better at the work while we built new community relationships"

.@Museumorphosis - wanted people to have such a great experience that they would "sell" it to their friends the next time the boats came through (since it's sort of a novelty); GET PEOPLE PARTICIPATING. #AASLH2020

sing, steer, haul lines - participate in sail a ship!

.@fari_nzinga speaking now about the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts (yay, MI) - efforts to deinstall museum exhibits, installing new more inclusive exhibits; making efforts to reach out to more diverse local communities. #AASLH2020

.@fari_nzinga - co-convened programming outside of the museum; new visitors introduced to museum in spaces that felt comfortable to them within the community. #AASLH2020

.@LynnfieldHC - based out of Houston, TX, Valerie Wade does historical consulting; passion for community engagement. Consulting gave her space to engage with people in ways they wanted to be engaged with. Goal: bring Houston's Black community together with history. #AASLH2020

great point from @fari_nzinga !
#AASLH2020

.@LynnfieldHC - had to ask self: who is my community? what do they want to learn about? what is important to them?

LISTENING TO THE COMMUNITY as the key part of facilitating community engagement.

#AASLH2020

Yes, yes yes! #AASLH2020

.@LynnfieldHC - importance of being mobile and bringing history to the community. Houston has a great museum district, but a huge city and inaccessible to many people, inc. elders. Importance of taking her programs around town. #AASLH2020

.@LynnfieldHC - for example, take people to cemeteries and teach them to use it as a historic tool. Learning from each other - they teach her also about their neighborhoods. #AASLH2020

.@LynnfieldHC - her job as a historian amidst gentrification to share that there's a lot of history here to be uncovered. Connecting people to the past in a changing environment. Help people feel empowered to preserve and learn. #AASLH2020

panelists now on post-covid engagement and outreach; challenges of losing staff - now engagement efforts are so much harder.
#AASLH2020

.@anichellemitch - Community Engagement is a two-way street. #AASLH2020

This crosses over with the Engagement panel in that these are the staff most vulnerable too to covid layoffs. #aaslh2020

sad to duck out of this early for a meeting, but excited to watch the recording later!!

Thanks for this great presentation @anichellemitch @Museumorphosis @LynnfieldHC @fari_nzinga