Leslie Leonard, Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum
Proposal Type
Roundtable
Seeking
- Seeking Additional Presenters
- Seeking General Feedback and Interest
Related Topics
- Advocacy
- Place
- Public Engagement
- Reflections on the Field
Abstract
How can you breathe new life into a museum/historic site/program that has become stagnant or stale? How can you reach out to a local community to make them feel welcome to the site?
Description
My goal for this forum is to have an open and honest conversation about what it looks like when a museum has lost the trust or interest of it’s local community. When I started my job in Sept. 2017 the entire staff before me had been gone for several months and a temporary staff was maintaining care. I am still working, along side my colleagues, to repair and maintain community relationships. I am interested in finding 2-3 people who have something to say about repairing relationships inside the community.
If you have a direct offer of assistance, sensitive criticism, or wish to pass along someone’s contact information confidentially, please get in contact directly: Leslie Leonard, [email protected].
If you have general ideas or feedback to share, please feel free to use the comments feature below.
Hi Leslie,
I’m a Public History graduate student and working at the South Carolina State Park Service on a project attempting to re-establish/repair local community relationships and trust with Rose Hill Plantation, a State Historic Site that has not been particularly welcoming to that community in the past. Rose Hill was the plantation of SC Gov. William H. Gist, who is known as the “secession governor” and who also owned almost 180 slaves (one of the largest slave owners in the upstate). The plantation was preserved as a shrine to him and states rights as the cause of the Civil War. Although updates to the house and tour script have attempted to tell a more inclusive story that includes slavery, the site has yet to accomplish more extensive repair work, particularly in the local African American community, many of whom tie their ancestry back to enslaved persons at Rose Hill or other local plantations. My work with the Park Service focuses on adding to a comprehensive site re-interpretation plan, and repairing the connection to the community, opening lines of communication with the goal of establishing a long-term relationship between the Park Service/Rose Hill and the community.
I think this work aligns very well with what you’re proposing and I’d love to talk about the possibility of being an additional presenter. We can further discuss details of some of the issues and challenges, as well as some of the approaches I’m implementing. Let me know if you are interested!
Hi Kate,
I think that your work does align well with what I’m thinking about. I would love to discuss further how we can collaborate on presenting together. Ideally, I am hoping to get 1-2 more people on board with presenting as well so that we can have a well rounded discussion on this.
Please email me and we can talk further on this.
Thank you.
It sounds like we’ve got quite a few proposals in the works that are thinking about rebuilding or repairing these kinds of institutional/community relationships, which is great to see! I wrote a note about this on Tanya Lane’s proposal, with some links to the other people who are thinking along these lines. Perhaps there’s a Working Group in all of this, or at least a strong session focusing on relationship-repair.
I’m so glad you saw this connection. There is a clear desire for this kind of conversation. Thank you.
This is an important conversation! It highlights a different aspect that pertains to outreach and its logistics. It might help to think about the questions under the “Repair Work and Collaboration” section in the call for proposals. I think engaging with those questions directly speaks to the issue you are raising.
I work for Missouri State Parks and have worked at two small historic sites which have become beyond stagnant. I would love to join you in discussing ways that we have updated, reengaged and diversified our visitation and exhibits. I like the concept of an honest conversation about what can happen and how people have combatted it.