Recap of the HME Mini Conference: Museums and Climate Change

Thank you to all who attended, presented, and helped to organize the HME Mini Conference Museums and Climate Change.
Special thanks to our generous hosts at the Royal Botanical Gardens! The site was a perfect setting for the day.

Sustainability at RBG

Chris McAnally, EPt., Environmental Sustainability Coordinator, RBG

Chris McAnally, Environmental Sustainability Coordinator at
the RBG, presenting at the Mini Conference

**will share slides for HME website

Chris was kind enough to share the slides from his presentation in pdf form. Below are a few links noted during the presentation questions and answers session.

He has also provided an answer to one of the questions asked at the Mini Conference:

"Waste diversion in Ontario is shifting towards a circular economy, meaning that the producers of items which become waste materials will become responsible for reusing/recycling/disposing of them. It is still in development with regards of exactly how that will look but the province has been taking this seriously even through the transition in provincial governments. I’ve attached the original policy which was brought forward by Minister Glen Murray back in 2017 and as far as I am aware seems to still be the most recent version. If possible it would be great if you could forward this along attachment and my blerb to the gentleman who was presenting alongside Ashley as I feel he would be interested to learn more about this upcoming change to how we handle waste in Ontario."

Plugshare
useful app for electric cars charging station

EcoCanada
Can hire students

Green Economy Hamilton

Coalition of Museums for Climate Justice Facebook Group

LUNCH BREAK: We got a wonderful tour of the Rose Garden from RBG Interpretation Officer Jennifer Dick.

RBG Interpretation Officer Jennifer Dick touring HME Mini
Conference attendees around the award winning Rose Garden

Engaging with Climate Change: How to connect with people and create impacts

Doug Worts and Ashley Watson

HME Mini Conference attendees taking part in Doug Worts
and Ashley Watson's workshop presentation.

The presenters have been kind enough to share their slides via pdf.
They've also shared pdfs of the project brief and handout used during their presentation.

Social Impact of the Printing Press

Briana Palmer

We touch briefly on this topic but were able to enjoy a hands on workshop to learn about a more eco-friendly form of printmaking that is accessible for folks of all ages. You can see it demonstrated here by its creator, Linda Germain.

HME Mini Conference attendee working on more eco-friendly
printmaking, as presented by Briana Palmer.

Getting Your Hands Dirty: Planting Seed and Taking Action

Sapphire Singh

Sapphire Singh presenting about the internationally recognized
McQuesten Urban Farm.

More info to come from Sapphire's presentation!

Drinkin' About Museums: November 2019

Join us for our next HME Drinkin' About Museums evening!

Location: Fairweather, 5 Ofield Road, Unit #1, Hamilton

Time: 6:30-8:30

Please RSVP

Topic and Speaker: Finding Hazel: Tragedy, Community and Education, Anna Patterson

Finding Hazel: Tragedy, Community and Education

To mark the centenary of the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic, Dundas Museum and Archives, Dundas Central Public School, McMaster University, Knox Presbyterian Church, and many passionate individuals, worked together to provide resources, experiences, and support for students as they curated their community exhibit, “Finding Hazel: Who Was Hazel Layden?”

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Anna Patterson

Education, Events, and Volunteer Coordinator
Dundas Museum and Archives
Anna Patterson is the Education, Events, and Volunteer Coordinator at Dundas Museum and Archives. She completed her Bachelor of Arts Honours degree in History and Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph. Realizing it was the perfect way to combine her two loves of theatre and history, Anna completed her postgraduate diploma in Museum Management and Curatorship at Fleming College. She has since focused her museum career in telling historic stories in engaging, unique, and memorable ways. Like a true Millennial, she also continues to work at Guelph Museums as a Visitor Experience Assistant.

Drinkin' About Museums: Danica Evering and Connecting with Diverse Audiences

HME Drinkin About Museums
Merit Brewing
Unusual Suspects: Art’s Expanded Relevance with Danica Evering

We had a great group in for the very first Drinkin About Museums! Below are some notes from the talk by Danica Evering. Thanks so much for coming out and speaking with us!

• Audiences Reaching out: drum up support
• Use intimacy inherent in exhibition to reach out.
• Show is about longing, grief, textiles.
• Correspond that with different programs.
• Fashion students, for example.
• Each group invited in came with their own expertise.
• Tactics: for a show of Inuit video art. Just googled “humber inuit” got hits for a group that went to the arctic every year.
• Wearable technology piece, brought in multimedia students.
•  Act of reaching out. Make a specific invitation letter. Being open to new audiences: kindergarteners interested in coming.
• Program coordinators were the leads.
• Knows about 2 months ahead of time, themes and the artists.
• Adapt the themes of the exhibit to meet the needs of different audiences. Read syllabuses, found common ground.
• Community development: with year-long students
• Plain language: curators wrote poems for didactic panels. Avoids overly academic explanatory text. Gave people a feeling of what and exhibition is about.
• Worked at Humber for 1.5 years
• Actively being a part of a community, going to their things. Reciprocal connections.
• Important to have a small meeting space (open space).
• Gallery attendants: fostering their social skills, welcoming.
• Meeting spaces. Asking profs for feedback: if you’re not coming to the gallery why not?