By alannah macgregor, Programs & exhibitions co-ordinator
There is a sort of tranquility to something coming to an end, whether the year was good or bad, by mid-December you know that this too shall pass. It’s a time to take stock of the challenges that were overcome and pitfalls we tripped into; and all that knowing that a new beginning is on its way.
After a conversation with our Curator JoAnne about how programming has evolved in just the two years since we began the process of creating the Museum’s Strategic Plan, we thought it might be worth taking a few moments to look at how our successes and challenges are going.
One of my favourite parts of the entire process of creating the strategic plan was getting to brainstorm values. It was interesting to see what everyone came up with and how most of them could be simmered down to just five over-arching values. There are other components of the strategic plan which act as goals that we try to embody with everything we do, however I think our values are the building blocks to reaching those goals. So, let’s take them one by one and see how they’ve influenced the museum in the last few years.
Respect
We respect all individuals, ideas, experiences, and perspectives with consideration, courage, and accountability.
This value is so incredibly key to the reimagining of where museums are headed. For years museums and museum staff were considered the authority on so many subjects with little community input. As our exhibit topics diversify, and we become a space for everyone we must acknowledge the importance of going beyond our own knowledge and experiences. This hit home for me in spring of 2023 when I was trying to figure out programming for “Gone Fishin”. Without getting into it, in my personal life I don’t agree with fishing. So here I am talking to the community collector about all the fishing things he can talk about during his presentations, and how to get the kids interested, and all I can do is remember the values we agreed on as a museum, that we would respect all perspectives. I can absolutely respect the knowledge the community collector brought to audiences that were delighted to learn what he had to teach.
Trust
We build trust in all our relationships and act with integrity and transparency as we curate and share stories of the community.
A big part of being a museum in general is promoting trust with the community. Including the trust that the information on our walls and in our displays is accurate, as well as the trust that we truly are a place for everyone and more. One way we create trust is in our exhibits. We acknowledge the gaps in our collection and that neither it nor our body of knowledge is complete. For example, in The Beat Goes on exhibit it was acknowledged that on our timeline of music progression we were missing records of Indigenous music, as right now they don’t exist in our archival collection. We can freely discuss that none of us can be experts on everything and that is when our other values and community partners come in. With the help of several knowledge keepers from their communities, we were able to include two Indigenous drums in the exhibit, as well as a recording of a contemporary group Sisters of the Drum.
Learning
We encourage curiosity, open mindedness, and risk taking in ourselves to create immersive, experiential and transformative learning for our communities.
Learning is such a big part of our museum that I think we hit this one out of the park. First off, we have several exhibits that change out every 4 to 6 months. These exhibits are so much more than artifacts with labels, they include interesting facts, new perspectives, and often insightful thoughts on the past, present, and future. Hats Off currently resides in one of our front display areas and it is a delightful romp through the history of hats in our area. This exhibit is jammed packed with esoteric hat information, like that found in the image above, for our visitors to learn.
We have oodles of people come through our museum doors to do research in the archives. From my occasional trip down to the archives (usually trying to hunt down where my printed pages have emerged), I can say that Heather teaches new researchers all the time; how archives work and how to get the most of their research time. To my mind, an archive is built like an ecosystem, where almost everything is built off something else. Heather’s understanding of this system and her ability to teach people how to use it creates innumerable doors into the past for those who come to the museum in search of answers.
Nicole does our digital content and marketing; this past year she did a significant amount of learning with a community partner. To me, this knowledge Nicole gained had a huge impact on our online presence as a museum. Our social media looks professional and sets a cohesive tone. I have also seen the type of risk-taking encouraged in our definition of Learning. From bus stop ads, to new sellers for our gift shop, to whole new ways to advertise through theatres. Nicole keeps the evolution of our museum from stagnating.
As a museum team we all learn and teach in many ways. In my school programs I often prompt continuous re-evaluation: what do we know? What do we know now that we’ve done an activity? Are there still gaps in our knowledge? Some days they teach me; the kindergartners more than anyone. For example, they teach me about expressing joy by running chaotically around our program room, waving their magic fairy wands, full of laughter while they do. The lesson: sometimes order and organization are overrated. I even find time to learn about an assortment of interesting topics in assisting with exhibits. One of my favourite tasks this past year was doing research for our Marvelous Mushrooms exhibit. I went in with some basic knowledge but getting to explore a variety of different species was truly an engaging task. Learning as a community is incredibly core to what we do and who we are as the Museum of Lennox and Addington.
Belonging
We celebrate diversity by engaging and listening to our communities and striving for welcoming, inclusive and meaningful spaces.
I think having belonging as one of our values has made a significant difference in how we build ourselves up as a museum. This value not only guides the exhibits we chose to create or host, but also impacts the programs and the extra projects we take on. When Refuge Canada was here from The Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, Heather took on creating an oral history project called “Welcome Home: Conversations with New Neighbors.” This project brought together the stories of several people and families who were, either now or at one point, newcomers to Canada. By recording in-depth interviews with participants, Heather not only made our records of the people who live in Lennox and Addington more inclusive, but also made it so participants could find a place of belonging at the museum.
A project that has been very meaningful to me has been the creation of our “Museum Inclusive,” a P.A. Day program. The idea for this program had been running around my head since beginning this position in 2022; I knew I wanted to create a space where all kids and families could feel welcome and feel the wonder that permeates our museum in a way that made it their museum too. Late spring of this year I consulted with the Maltby Centre to get a more expansive idea of what was needed to accommodate as many people as possible in our space. The message I came away with was that families needed time to explore without judgment, where they could come in for maybe 5 minutes and leave without worry, if that’s what they needed to do. We created a program that included a quiet area, a sensory station, games and more. The goal of Museum Inclusive is simply to create a space where kids and families can come in and feel welcome to experience and explore the museum in whatever way works for them.
I think the rest of the museum team would agree that the museum creates a special type of wonder and sharing that, in every way we can, is a meaningful and fulfilling part of all of our jobs.
Collaboration
We work with our community to access and share strengths, knowledge, and experiences for deeper connection and understanding of each other.
Our final value for the museum is collaboration, which is a value that contributes to all of our roles. For me, the event that stands out regarding collaboration was in creating the “Indigenous Artist Panel,” a school program involving 5 Indigenous artists, almost 100 grade 7/8 students, teachers, and helpers. Going into the planning I knew what my goal for the program was; to create a space where Indigenous artists could speak and/or demonstrate their art and culture in an open platform, in combination with providing students with an opportunity to ask questions and learn in an immersive way. I am just beginning on this journey to start to understand local Indigenous cultures which made planning this event trickier. Luckily, I was able to meet with Rick Revelle who was able to make recommendations for structure and for other artists who might like to participate. With the collaboration of all the artists who participated, as well as the teachers who booked spots, the event was a success, and in my opinion a bright spot in the museum’s programs for 2024.
Vision and Mission
We have discussed the building blocks in the form of our values, but what in fact are we building? Our mission and vision of course! These are the overreaching statements that build upon our values to determine what we want the museum to be today and into the future; they guide where we want the museum to go. As such, I thought I’d better consult with some experts regarding how the museum is doing living up to our Mission Statement and Vision Statements.
Vision: Creating an inspiring space for everyone to experience the past, present and future with wonder.
Mission: We curate collections and exhibitions to connect people to the past through dynamic story telling, research and programming to foster reflection, meaning and hope for the future.
Below you can see what the rest of our staff think about our mission or vision.
Archivist Heather (Vision)
From a redesign of the Archives corridor, to putting the Archives on display for doors open events and other tours, to creating lighthearted and approachable exhibits like The Beat Goes On and To Be Kids Again, I have been working to lower that invisible barrier that so many experience when they see the Archives, to create a space where all feel welcome to enter and explore. With these projects, I aim to inspire that childhood sense of wonder as our visitors explore the Archives and find something of themselves, bringing the past to life through shared experiences and feelings.
Digital Content and Marketing, Nicole (Mission)
A large part of our mission is about connection and my position is all about fostering those connections, and perhaps, even initiating them through general awareness of the museum itself and everything we have to offer from the stories within the collections and exhibitions, to a wide array of programming and research opportunities. In the past 14 months that I have been here, I have not only grown the museum’s Facebook, Instagram and online presence, but also made and maintained meaningful connections and partnerships with local and neighbouring individuals, communities, and organizations (such as MyFM Napanee, Lennox Community Theatre, the Napanee Beaver, and more). I feel like it is important to share the museum’s and Lennox and Addington’s stories through new marketing avenues that directly or indirectly encourage people to connect and reflect on the question of “what’s your story?”
Curator JoAnne (Vision and Mission)
When we underwent the development of our new Mission statement I was nervous because I wasn’t sure what the new approach to THIS museum would look like. We were hoping for less stuffy, more fun and engagement from a more diverse Lennox and Addington. We wanted folks off all ages, backgrounds, beliefs, and economies to enjoy what we do here and that meant doing things away from our typical scope of traditional lectures and author reads, school visits, and heritage workshops. Over the past 2 years, I have been proud of the museum team’s creativity to include programs and exhibits for peoples of different backgrounds, as seen in our March Around The World during March of 2023. We enjoyed visits to China, Portugal, Indonesia, India, Afghanistan, Turkey, Syria, Israel all the while staying in the walls of the museum. We brought in Refuge Canada and were made aware of the plight of immigration today- from this we created an oral history project that captured refugee and immigration stories of our local newcomers. What was lost while we went about making sure our 1830’s history was present, was the fact that history is made every day. The histories of people new to L&A was not represented nor did it seem important. However from this experience, museum staff realized – EVERYONE who contributes to Lennox and Addington adds to its historical record in some way.
With this very thought – we started to look at the museum collection itself – what did it say and was the story correct? We have started to work with Indigenous communities to foster compassion and understanding of what has happened in the colonization of their world and what we need to do moving forward to reconcile and create space for their voices, culture, and history as they see it.
Museums are not just dusty, stuffy places. Museums are dynamic – they tell stories, they inspire, we spark thoughts, we connect people together. But we are also a place of community that has nothing to do with our history but as everything to do with our present – we wanted to make sure we are relevant and that the community continues to find need with us. That was a big concern. Are we needed? Why do we matter? How can we make space for the untraditional museum visitor. Well…we do this by making room at the table so to speak; we create programs and exhibits that are maybe are a little strange to people who like a traditional visit. We bring in old-time carnivals by the river to capture the imagination, we make Turkish lamps taught by someone from Turkey, we dance Zumba and hold yoga poses, we gather like-minded people for genealogy support, we make our space inclusive for those who maybe like a quiet visit and we bring in guest speakers to talk about mental health. We play loud music for those who love a little loud music, we create drama at our historic house for those who love a good play, and we make space for our youth so they can speak about how they feel when they can’t express themselves…..maybe this is sitting on the rug during a children’s book reading and telling the author in a safe space – “I am not always understood but I know I am smart” or maybe you are a teen that creates fun reels for our followers to enjoy. ALL of this together make for a very new museum experience and it is heartening to see the community coming back to visit over and over and over again…..clearly this is the museum they want too.
Just before we started working on our strategic plan (mission, vision, values etc.) I was hired as the museum’s Programs and Exhibitions Co-ordinator. When I think back to when I was first hired, I can see many changes in how I do my job. The first big change I can see was how I organized organizing various events. One of my biggest challenges at first was trying to keep all the information organized from various artists. When are they arriving? Have I asked them for marketing photos? What set-up do they need? All this information was initially just stored in sometimes more than a dozen emails per artist. I began making a standardized general info sheet for every single event with all the relevant details that needed to be shared with various other staff simply and efficiently in a single place. The other element that has increased organization has been implementing an event agreement with artists and presenters. By having artists fill out a single document with all the basic information required that both the artists and I can refer to, this has ensured clear communication and has set basic expectations. The other areas I’ve noticed changes in the last two years has been in my own confidence when delivering programs. While there is never an end to learning, I think that I have developed significantly more confidence, especially when running my own programs and speaking with crowds of people. I’ve also been learning to relax a little when it comes to booking programs; I can’t force an artist/presenter to email me back, but as long as I get an early start there isn’t much point in getting lost in unproductive worry. Overall, I feel like a have grown in my role, especially under the guidance of our strategic plan.
Circling back around, the holidays are almost upon us. This includes (in my opinion) the bane of the season, New Year’s Eve, always centered around one persistent question What’s your new year’s resolution? While I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a resolution, I have focused parts of my last year on gratitude, which I think is where I want to end this blog. Gratitude to all our visitors and community partners in the last 2 years. Gratitude to our volunteers and summer students. Gratitude to all of the fantastic coworkers who add their own stories and experiences to this museum: JoAnne, Heather, Nicole, Liz, Bonnie, and Karen. Gratitude to the assortment of furry and feathered friends who come by to cheer us up. Finally, gratitude for this odd obsession with owls that has snuck up on us, it’s really weird but I am grateful for all the smiles it brings to museum visitors and staff alike.
Happy Holiday everyone, we’ll see you in the new year.
