the Association for Living History, Farm and Agricultural Museums
I have been teaching living history in Oregon for 20 years and have met people who are curious and thoughtful, and also encountered those who are distrustful of ideas that challenge their beliefs. With the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence this year, I began considering why I do this work. Why do people go to historical events and museums? And if they don’t, why should they?.....
by Nancy Kimberley Phillips Heritage Park is a large living history museum in Calgary, Alberta (Treaty 7[1]) that has been in operation since 1964. The primary focus of the Park is to share the history of Western Canada between ~1880-1940. In recent years, a central part of our mandate has been to diversify the stories… Continue reading LAVENDER SPRIGS: Wear it with Pride!
I recently picked up a copy of Museums in Crisis from a pile of curbside books destined for the trash. Outdated or still relevant?
What is it to be “woke” and why would someone be tired of it? According to the dictionary, it is the past tense of “wake”—to cease to sleep; to be brought into a state of awareness. My American Heritage Dictionary was published in 1982, so it was long before the current informal definition of “to be alert to injustice in society.” I, for one, am in no way tired of being woke. Why would you not want to be in a state of awareness? There is a moral imperative to call out injustice. All people have a right to dignity, and by claiming their dignity and their story, they do not lessen mine. They expand it.
ALHFAM 