By Megan Anderson, Manager of Exhibits & Interpretive Planning As we approach the end of March and the sprint towards April, everyone in the museum or institutional field has hit their pandemic anniversary date—the moment when “business as usual” gave way to efforts to stanch …
Lean In and Let Go: Creative Team Building in Small Museums
By Dr. Stephanie Fuglaar Statz, Senior Historian My first day as director of a very small museum in a rural town was unlike any first day I had ever had. There was a quick human resources meeting, and I got the keys to the museum. …
How to Transform Your Digital Assets to Drive Online Engagement
Guest post by Chris Cummings, Pass It Down Turn history into your greatest storyteller! Our favorite tips for optimizing online engagement with your digital assets. In the first post of our partner series on “Turning History Into Your Greatest Storyteller,” History Associates Incorporated laid out …
Laying the Foundation for Storytelling: Tips for Digital Transformation & Sustainability
By Laura Starr, Certified Archivist, HAI Engagement Strategist & Account Manager This blog was created in conjunction with our friends at Pass It Down, a company with an award-winning digital exhibit builder platform that libraries, museums, universities, and brands have used to bring their history …
Reopenings: The Mob Museum
By Megan Anderson, Manager of Exhibits & Interpretive Planning Our friends at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada, reopened their doors to the public at the end of May when state and local authorities lifted restrictions. I chatted with their team about how the …
Reopenings: Whitesbog Historic Village
By Megan Anderson, Manager of Exhibits & Interpretive Planning Unlike most museums, the Whitesbog Historic Village in Browns Mills, New Jersey, is primarily an outdoor site, so hasn’t faced some of the same challenges as cultural institutions that welcome guests into confined indoor spaces. Even …
Risk, Reward, and Reopening: The Dilemma Facing Cultural Institutions
By Megan Anderson, Manager of Exhibits & Interpretive Planning As we enter August – and our sixth month since COVID-19 turned life in the U.S. upside down– many museums and historical sites are struggling with the question of whether or not to reopen. Organizations have …
Breaking Ground: The United States Olympic and Paralympic Museum Opens to the Public
By Mimi Eisen, Historian Last week, the United States Olympic and Paralympic Museum (USOPM) in Colorado Springs first opened to the public, and HAI is proud to have worked with design firm Gallagher & Associates on content development for the museum. Under normal circumstances, the …
Malady & Memory: Historic Sites that Preserve the Legacy of Resisting Disease
By Scott Vierick, Historian Disease and pandemics have always been a part of human history, but for every illness, there have been countless people who have worked to study and create treatments and cures. Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, HAI historians have explored past epidemics and …