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: 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?

HME visits the Hamilton Public Library Makerspace!

On Monday May 27 HME members visited the Hamilton Central Library Makerspace! We had a guided tour of the various spaces, followed by some chatting and snacks at the nearby Mulberry Street Coffeehouse.

Below are some notes from the visit.

• Opened April 2016
• Makerspaces open same time as library, but need to close about 30 mins before

  

  Sound studio

• Sound studio: can make reservations, most popular space in Makerspace, have garageband and audacity
• If you want to edit music, can do it from any Mac in HPL
• could bring in your own instruments
• Some people record podcasts
• Maker studio: Most everything is free for someone in good standing with their membership, but people pay for materials
• With 3D printer, staff operates it
• Don’t have to be a 3D designer, some programs are thingiverse, tinkercad
• Table top scanner
• Smaller branches have converters for VHS, scanners, convert at 1:1, can also scan negatives and slides, Central is the only branch that has cassette tape to PC device

  

  3D printer at work, along with some printed objects

• All Mac have complete Adobe suite
• There’s a request process on their website where people can suggest differnt things for the HPL to have
• Large scale printer
• Gets a lot of use during art crawls and supercrawl
• Charge by paper and ink, have to run the print first before they know how much it will cost, but still fairly inexpensive
• Vinyl cutter/printer
• Any image can be made into a sticker (also has device to cut out vinyl lettering)

Some of the textile tools in the Makerspace

• Embroidery machine
• Janome Memory Craft 500E
• Can use almost any image and it’ll convert it to embroidery
• Fabric up to light denim?
• Frosh week folks have used it for their overalls
• Video/photo studio: They have cameras, but people are welcome to bring in their own equipment
• Vinyl printer for stickers

Vinyl stickers with our logo!

• Can book online
• Can’t book same day, can book up to 7 days ahead, only 1 space at a time
• If it’s on your library card, you have to be here
• Demographics: all over the map
• Mostly people between 20-30
• Stores will print (from Hamilton Centre)
• Groups: ask first
• Sometimes teachers can arrange special tasks that get kids to use all he different stations
• Usually have programs on Saturday mornings at 10
• Bring library card, photo id, sign a waiver (eg can’t print a weapon)

Delicious snacks from the Mulberry Street Coffeehouse

Cafe Night: Monday September 25, 2017

What a fantastic turn out we had for the first cafe night of 2017-2018! Thanks to everyone who joined us.

Our topic was Professional associations, conferences, courses, and networking: 
What do you belong to? What options are out there?

Folks suggested all sorts of courses, networking options, and conferences. Listed below with links.

Also of note:

• Don't forget about the call for presentations for our Nov 20 Mini Conference on Technology in Museums!
• We're looking for suggestions for cafe night locations. Do you know of a quiet cafe/restaurant with a variety of food+drink options, good parking, open Mondays, and (ideally) located near to a major highway? Please let one of your coordinators know!

__________________________________________________________

Conferences

• MuseumNext: very welcoming (European conferences are very large, North American one just starting out, not AS large)
• Coalition of Museums for Climate Justice; FB group. Upcoming conference in early 2018
• ICASC Gathering: Art for Social change (offered through Concordia): good price, in Ottawa in November
• Creative Times Summit (with AGO, PowerPlant, hosting) social change education pieces, first time they've held it in Canada
• TIAO (travel industry association of ontario) conference 

Organizations

• AAM: American Alliance of Museums
• OMA: Ontario Museums Associaton
• OAAG: Ontario Association of Art Galleries (used to have courses, not anymore?)
• CAGE: Canadian Art Gallery Educators (yearly conference, usually in April or May)
• INTERPSCAN: Interpretation Canada (online and in person conference, online ones are affordable)
• Parks and Rec Ontario: (has classes and conferences)
• CMA: Canadian Museums Association
• MAGEC-D: Museum and Art Gallery Educators Collective of Durham (an HME-like group for the Durham area)
• GOEMP: Group of Ontario Emerging Museum Professionals
• HNCA: Haldimand Norfolk Cultural Association (cultural professionals, heritage,marts, Haldimand and norfolk museums, professional development, small membership fee
• EON: Elgin Oxford Norfolk Association of Curators, Archivists, and Directors
• PAONE: Professional Arts Organization Network for Education 
• MONA: Museums of Niagara Association (does joint events like Friday Night Live)
• UAAC: Universities Art Association of Canada
• ALHFAM: American Association for Living History, Farm, and Agricultural Museums (send out a hardcopy newsletter, most recent one about historic cooking)
• ICOM: International Council of Museums
• BMGA: Brant Museum and Gallery Association (like the HNCA in Brant county)
• Museums Association in the UK

Courses/Online Conferences

• The Art of Education: resource for art teachers, has an online conference 
• ACM: Association of Children's Museum (webinar, one hour, Tuesday afternoons, free for members)
• FutureLearn: has some moocs for museums (University of Leicester, "Behind the Scenes of the 21st Century Museum")
• Coursera: wide variety of free courses from institutions like the MoMA, and "Indigenous Canada" through the University of Alberta
• EdX: MOOC with courses like "Teaching Historical Inquiry with Objects" from the Smithsonian

Other Helpful Resources

• TMS listserv was really good
• CHIN's website lets you sign up for listservs including ONMUSE, Fireweed, and CANMUSE
• Interpretation Canada (might have one)
• Linkedin: a number of museum groups, might be useful (Museums and Galleries, American Alliance of Museums, Museums and the Web)
• Museum Questions: Reflections on Museums, Programs, and Visitors (twitter?)
• Colleen Dilenschneider: Know Your Own Bone, data-informed resource for cultural executives. Great Twitter and FB feeds, youtube channel.
• Museum Hack: (did some work with PAMA), good to follow for tips and tricks
• Art Museum Teaching: A forum for reflecting on practice

QUESTION: What value do you get from belonging to a professional association?
QUESTION:  Does anyone just become a member because they want to support or find an organization interesting? What about the benefit of thinking you are supporting something?
QUESTION: Are there any non-museum conferences or courses? (Libraries? Tourism?)

HME Cafe Night Meeting Notes 2017-2018 Planning Session

We met at the Collins Brewhouse - the on-off rain kept us inside and off the patio. But that didn't ruin the fantastic conversation, eats, and ideas for 2017-2018!

Mini Conferences

Institutions offering spaces

• RBG
• Dundas Museum 
• Museums of Mississauga 

• do NOT hold in May, try half day, with supper, maybe April

Topics for Mini Conferences

• Climate change mini conference (might be great to have at RBG in Oct or Nov) Museums for Climate Justice. Approach sustainability, conservation parks
• Technology in Museums (maybe at Museums of Mississauga)
  RBG has location based games, tale blazer, all the things google can do for you! Google 360, geo fencing, apple maps, google maps)
  John Piccone, director of education using ipad, grade 3-5, present at and evening meeting 

Behind-the-Scenes tour

• Museums of Mississauga
• Art Gallery of Hamilton
• Halton Heritage Services
• POLL ask what place, what month coming soon!

Café Night

Location 

• Keep in Burlington at Williams?

Café Night Topics 

• Professional associations/conferences/courses
• Networking
• Tourism tie ins/partnerships (how do you work out how you're partnering, policies, making sure it's mutually beneficial)
• how people work with libraries
• travelling exhibits
• Makerspaces (city of Hamilton libraries), two rivers galleries
• Book Club: Engaging your community toolkit (Museums of Mississauga, created survey for museum workers using this tool kit, and will present at the OMA conference this fall)

Projects that HME can pursue

• Inter-museum equipment co-op (work with sustainability)
• Resources list (“We have” or “We wish we had…” similar to freecycle or Kijiji)

Museum Crawl 

• thematic, not city based?
• Do during summer 
• Bring students
• Connect with YCW
• DO IN JUNE 2018, summer camps haven't started yet, end of June, networking for students

Other Fun Stuff!

• We’re looking for people to add to the HME Co-ordinating team. Interested? Contact us!

Cafe Night: November 2016

We met at Williams in Burilngton by Silvercity on Nov 28, 2016, to hear a great presentation from Lambton Heritage Museum's Luke Stempien about that museum's recent RE:ORG project and discuss education/handling collections.
Thanks for sharing, Luke!

RE:ORG

• Started through ICOM and UNESCO
• around since 2006, came to Canada in 2014/15
• First piloted in Ontario 
• Step-by-step tool kit for reorganizing space, easily scalable
• There should be a space for everything (including educational materials and collections)
• 2011 ICOM surveyed museums, 1/3 lack regular storage cleaning schedule
• Have storage space staff person to oversee
• Safe space for storage
• Collection space/ operational/education/curatorial
• Took a whole year to do the reorg
• Project team; all full time and part time staff, regular meetings, (core team of 3 people, bigger team of 6)
• Can help show where collection strengths and weaknesses are
• Myths: you don't need to have a full collections inventory to start the process, you might have more space than you think
• How long to find something in storage?: should take 3 mins
• Started out taking about 20 mins to find something

How to get started?
Click this PDF link for RE:ORG's Self Evaulation Tool

• Get senior management involved; RE:ORG is good because it gives numbers that can be used across a number of museums and internationally
• Get in touch with other museums and galleries
• Collecting moratorium?
• Changes to method of collecting? / Have to tackle policy documents?
• Volunteer collections committee (buffer between staff and public)?
• Make sure there's enough staff (right ratio between collections and education)

Suggestions for moving forward with RE:ORG

• Look at policy documents, tie collecting into interpretation
• Offsite storage for non-essential things
• Interpretive costumes: could go on compression storage
• Education materials storage: a particular place for things like Tool kit bookings and a system to keep track of all items (Separate systems?)
• Deasscensioning: can go to committee

Cafe Night: September 2016

SOCIAL MEDIA was the topic. Here's some notes from our discussion that evening.

interesting: Western University has "digital humanities"
Humber Collage; has a continuing education certificate in Social Media

Podcasts are a pretty accessible, wide-open area for social media sharing.

• Check USA for museum/gallery based podcasts 
• Examples: History of the World in 100 Objects, Bata Shoe Museum

Questions:

• what CAN we accomplish at our institutions without compromising quality?
• Capacity is important
• Is this a team effort, or down to one staff member?
• what happens when a social media staff member leaves?

Great example of museum social media use: Lakeshore Grounds

• Old psychiatric hospital; has small exhibit space
• Online presence to expand space because space is so small
• Did IG takeover
• Speaking consistently; unanimous voice
• started with immediate physical neighbours, seeing what hashtags they use

Another great example of museums using social media: Hamilton Museum of Steam and Technology

• MakerFair steam museum: twitter was great for that
• Good to know your target audience and where they are
• How do you find that out??: have to know people/plug into their social media of choice and see how they use it

Things to think about with your institution and social media:

• do you need to use it at all? Is it where your audience is?
• WHICH platform to use? 
• Have a plan for cohesive voice; should speak with  your audience in the tone that's apporpriate to both your institution as well as the platform (some more relaxed than others)
• If you use multi platforms, sometimes work can be cut down and one post will go out to all your platforms by using in-between apps (like IFTTT)
• Facebook is still the most popular, demographic skewing older
• Boosting your post on Facebook does indeed make a difference
• Project specific may make it easier to do; specific event/audience
• Teachers are super interested in tagging back, students less interested
• social media will at least demonstrated a heart beat for your museum
• it's really important to have your hours listed, and make sure any maps connected with your institution are correct

Thinking about Snapchat? Here's an interesting webinar on it.
Museum Nerd on Twitter: huge following, very popular.

HME Cafe Night Notes February 29, 2016

Great meeting last night everyone!

Some of the topics mentioned and resources suggested:

NEWS
Museums of Missisauga are holding an exhibition and event with Charles Pachter and Margaret Atwood: The Journals of Susanna Moodie

Beyond Sit & Stay opens May 29

The topic of DIVERSITY was settled on for our upcoming Mini Conference in April. Check your inbox over the next couple of days for details

Did you know: you can get a free copy of a map of Ontario containing  treaty information as well as a wealth of resources from Ontario's website Aboriginal Experiences

QUESTIONS
Has the new requirements for CMOG made you re-examine your social media? Here's some tips on creating a social media plan from the OMA

How has the news from the Canada Council for the Arts about changing their funding model in April 2017 - tying directly to diversity - impacted your organizations? Has anyone changed/adapted their programs as a result?
Suggestions include:
-diversity specialist
-working with municipal / regional multicultural council and Aboriginal networks
-training for diversity (eg: specialists who train with exercises, discussion, video, and activities such as "Unpacking the Invisible Back Pack")
-cultural access pass
-acknowledgement statements


What programs are organizations planning for the Sesquicentennial?
-partnering with city

FUN
And check out this BBC documentary on the history of the WI

UPCOMING MEETINGS

April 18: Mini Conference
May 30: Cafe night
June 27: Planning Session 2016/2017

An Exciting New HME

We had our annual end-of-the-year patio meeting last night, and annouced the changes that will see HME become an even more dynamic and responsive professional group.

Museum Hack
Several of our members attended the presentation by Museum Hack at KWAG last week. Did you? Please share your thoughts and ideas by responding to this post.
Want to learn more about Museum Hack? Here's a Ted talk, given by the founder of the company Nick Gray.

PLC
We have a new vision for our PLCs (peer learning circles).
We will now be holding Mini Conferences and Museum Crawls.

Mini Conferences
We will try to arrange these for September or March/April rather than May.

Museum Crawl
We're planning the first of these events for September 2015.
It will be a day spent in Toronto, visiting our colleague's institutions (museums, galleries, and historic homes) and allowing us to network, learn from each other, and spend some time socializing in a relaxed and stimulating atmosphere.
The hope is that moving forward, we will be able to have Museum Crawls in other Ontario cities/areas such as Hamilton, Brant, Halton, and Lambton

After hours sessions
We will reframe these to cafe nights from 7:00-9:00 pm, where all members will have the option to just have coffee, grab a dessert, or partake in dinner if they so choose.
The location we are looking to meet at is Williams in Burlington.
We will also forego preset topics and open the floor to whatever issues need discussing. Want to test out a new activity? Use the group as guinea pigs!
Share your ideas, thoughts, and anything new and exciting on our Facebook page!

Topics for consideration:

• winter tours. What do you do in slow seasons?
• Video conferencing for schools and strikes
• "I couldn't believe it when..."
• interpretation and the audience experience

Unconference
HME may be involved in an Unconference in the spring of 2015. Stay tuned for details!

New members
Do you know any students, colleagues, or other individuals who would be interested in joining HME? Let them know about us and our exciting new schedule for next year.

EVERYONE IS WELCOME

Book Club: "Creativity in Museum Practice" HME Meeting Notes Feb 23, 2015

 

“Creativity in Museum Practice” by Linda Morris and Rainey Tisdale

Thanks to everyone who braved the cold to join us at Mex-i-can in Hamilton this Monday!

We had a great discussion with people who'd read the book cover to cover, some who'd just skimmed it, and others who haven't gotten to it yet.

Overall, this book was deemed a valuable purchase.

You should invest in this book because:

• Pocket guide in back
• it's simple
• Chapter 2 is meatier "building creative cultures", recruiting creative boards
• Eg: opportunities for creativity in board meetings, almost like warm up exercises like the "Mystery object"
• helps people to understand the cost of doing business eg: have people play a sort of price is right game, with board/colleagues eg: understand cost of advertising, etc...
• Speaking with staff that aren't involved in financial undertakings
• "Get buy in"
• Chapter three tools for creative culture
• suggests you observe target audience intentionally, as well as analogous environments
• Helpful for strategic plans, training volunteers, program development
• it suggests you read outside your discipline to gain perspective and a mental break
• useful in workshops: the creativity inventory and mind maps were used to facilitate an interdisciplinary group of graduate students' exploration of creativity

Things to watch out for:

• allow for the book (especially the first chapter) to appear too elementary because later chapters expand the ideas and suggestions

Other great ideas from the meeting:

• Get staff meetings scheduled for 2 hrs before end of day, people motivated to stay on topic
• Have specialized meetings for marketing, education, etc...

Education About Education: HME Meeting Notes November 17, 2014

Education about education: what conferences/courses/classes/diplomas have you taken? What’s been most useful?

Royal Coachman Pub: Waterdown

Professional Development/Conferences
University of Victoria
Diploma in Cultural Resource Management
online/distance learning

OMA
offers a Certificate in Museum Studies, open to all OMA members
can be (but is not necessarily) history-museum heavy
No chance for debriefing: intense 3 day in-person or several months online
Moves teaching locations around the province
useful, but sometimes difficult to complete with full time work

Algonquin College (in Ottawa)
2 years Applied Museum Studies
Co-op can be done at many locations/types of institutions eg: ROM, Parks Canada conservation centre, Fieldcote

Interpretation Officer from RBG has taken graduate diploma in Science Communication, from Science North and Laurentian University
it includes 8 week internship, field trips

NAI training
National Association for Interpretation
American version of InterpScan
Nature-based



teaching degree (huge help for any education related job)

Northern States Conservation Center Online Education Course 
Similar to OMA, do that one instead

-PRO  *forgot the exact name*  Youth workshop - useful for running camps and working with junior volunteers

Outstanding Camp Training Workshop
useful for training camp staff

Grand River Heritage Day Workshop 
extremely useful to find out what others are do in this area, to learn more about the area I am teaching in, and what resources are out there. It is FREE! Some years are more interesting/relevant to my programs than others, but it is really neat to see what is out there.

Ideas for Conferences OUTSIDE of obvious museum associations
Tech conferences (RBG employees who work heavily with tech)

Science teachers of Ontario
Need to know curriculum, what they need in the curriculum
Promote, but also learn
Subject integration is very important to teachers!

Medical Conferences (crossover with arts-teaching)





Ask yourself:
WHO is your audience? What do they need/want?
You can search online for your audience's professional associations, and their conference/other learning opportunities.
WHAT is your motive for going to a conference?
Is it for your own edification, promotion of your institution, education, networking? Seeing what others in your field are doing?
WHEN do ypu stop looking for courses that will improve your degree?
How about informal professional development? (like HME!)

Suggestions of Helpful resources/websites
Magic.piktochart
Fast, eye-catching
Could be print doc and/or presentation

Digital Human Library
Add any digital resource at your institution!!


NFB
Bear 71
Follow the life of a bear, but this idea can be applicable to tech-learning tools
Pre-visit activity
Note: setting up certain tech-based learning resources may be a good intern job

Using new media for interpretation
Helpful and thorough list of online resource for new media interpretation tools

Peer Learning: G-Chats
Can be seen in archives, or you can participate in real time
found through talk@museum-ed.org Digest

Children's Programs: HME Meeting Notes Monday February 24, 2014

We met at the Bread Bar on Locke Street in Hamilton. It was crowded, the food was great, and we had a great meeting!

Recommended blog post re: Preschool in a Museum

What tips would you give for children's programming?
-make sure to have back up plans
-check out the competition, no overlap
-huge lead time for registration (4-6 months in advance)
-PA days: tapers off when kids get older (at Ruthven, maybe rural is issue)
(Minimum kids 5 for PA day, but for camp can be different because they can sign up for one day, not whole week)
-March Break hard to get
-PA day hard to get away from "babysitting"
-camps: tight age ranges (4-5 yo, 6-7...)

Market/Promote
-summer camps 6 months in advanced
-members only get advantage of early registration
-Mom bloggers; good to market to/useful for promoting
-city of Mississauga eliminating brochure for house to house delivery
-ESL citizens likely not considered in elimination of brochures, some people rely on their kids to do reading, adults maybe not comfortable asking in person
-appears to be negatively effecting enrollment in activities
-important to maintain email lists, many places going paperless
-Ruthven emails pdfs to teachers who the share it with each other
-March break programs: are the ages dropping? Ruthven camps are usually about 8-15 kids. School programs: attempts to attract specific grades, get more younger kids in spring, gr 4-7 in fall. Seems seasonal.
-Mississauga seems to be getting younger kids.
-1.5 hrs for younger kids, 2 hrs for older
-summer camps numbers seemed to be declining. Mississauga museums partnered with community centres and dance/music offers a taste of different disciplines. This has been popular
-Ruthven has 2 weeks of summer camps
-first week of July not great because of Canada day, people go away
-at the RBG, storytelling has been popular

Drop ins, camps
-depends on season. And programs where kids get dropped off pre-registration is required.
-Thursday nights first person history tours around Christmastime very popular
 

March break
-Mississauga doesn't do drop ins, only pre-register. Too busy
-many people are interested in family things, not just camp for kids

Summer camp
-RBG does 9 weeks, starts June 30
-Ruthven looks at nearest "competition", mostly just to see what else is out there, diversify
-RBG has 3 page registration form to cover legal/health/emergency contact issues

-High Five certified (for ages 6-9)
-before and after care, does seem to affect enrollment. Some places do offer, but have to take into account all the lieu time staff can accrue.
-camp staff can be split, that way can avoid overtime. Full time staff works with them
-Mississauga has some spaces that are just camp, others camp plus extended hours

Are there always child friendly activities at site?

-Tricky for historic homes with artifacts and sensitive textiles (example of appropriate activity is the scent activity from Mississauga)
-activities on tablets, teachers prefer no tablets because students do that all the time anyway, engage them with the space itself
-photo scavenger hunt
-engage kids verbally on guided tours, depends on interpreter
-12-15 year old leader in training at RBG, been very successful. These are kids who have been going for years. Started another program that's the gardening equivalent, but was not successful. GreenAngels fund has been successful.
-ages 3-11 gardening programs have been successful.
-maybe fan link with Mustard Seed?
-for teens using technology in the environment popular eg photography, geocaching
-sometimes gets so popular the same school want to come back with same kid next hear. Have to alter programs
-travelling programs? Many museums will do outreach, depends if you want something regular or one-shot
-combine camps more popular than strictly heritage camps. Museum studies at U of T, even McMaster has Applied Humanities. Also depends if you need to generate revenue.
-of course everything has to tie back in with mission statement
-Ruthven: can sort of wiggle around it because eg: collection with replica Rembrandts, etc...
-March break is time travel camp at Ruthven (history in March, environment in summer).
-food, medicine, where it comes from. How its processed,
-connected with conservation authority
-Plan B Organic, link with gardening groups, organic farms, come out and promote their product

World War I Commemorations: HME Meeting Monday January 20, 2014

HME After Hours Meeting: WW1 Commemorations at Your Institution
January 20, 2014

Teresa Gregorio (MMA)
Sarah Hamilton (Bell Homestead)
Nicole Knibb (MMA)
Paula Whitlow (Woodland Cultural Centre)
Heather George (Hamilton Museum of Steam and Tech, Six Nations Legacy Consortium)
Luke Stempien (Lambton County Museum)
Geoffrey Moyer (researcher Brantford Public Library)

•    Alward Vimy memorial and who has rough drawings and plasters?
•    Brantford has war memorial which was part of beautification project for Brantford as third largest exporter in Ontario (huge factories and millionaire families like Massey Harris)
•    Bell Homestead existed prior to WW1and might not be doing anything to commemorate the anniversary
•    1914 commemorations funding: no funding from federal Government and apparently Australia, France, Canada, etc. is riding coattails of Euro nations especially Britain for funding (not funding on their own)
•    Canadian government now focused on Canada 150 and  tying all anniversaries into this – spent a lot of money on 1812 commemorations
•    Funding for films is happening but only film (NFB and other groups)
•    NFLD has specific projects and province is funding them
•    Make your project unique as ON fights for funding
•    Suggestion: Grade 7 and 8 curriculum target
•    Lots of things planned for Mississauga Museums (Merri Fergusson):
Doors Open Ontario focus for 2014 is the commemoration of WW1. Museums of Mississauga in partnership with History Matters Association and Heritage Mississauga will host the following 3 days
Door Open Saturday September 27th WW1 Experience Day at Benares Historic House for the general public (free)
Culture Day Sunday September 28th WW1 Experience Day at Benares Historic House for the general public (free)
Peel High School Monday September 29th WW1 Experience Day at Benares Historic House free for 350 Grade 10 students
Grants and sponsorship will hopefully cover all costs.
All 3 days will have a series of interactive stations which groups will rotate through on a 15 minute (approx.) schedule. Each participant will be assigned an identity for the day of a Mississauga (Toronto Township) resident who participated in the war effort. At the end of the day students will receive the details of the individual's war time experience on the home front or the war front. Heritage Mississauga will be sharing their work on the World War 1 Mississauga Virtual Cenotaph Project. We are also in discussion with the Great War Flying Museum for a "Fly Over'. Stay tuned for more details...

•    Audience or potential funding from Doors Open or events similar to that?

Great War Centenary Association http://www.doingourbit.ca/
•    Working with Brant County, Six Nations, Brant Public Library
•    Using letters they are creating a narrative of the home front
•    Also involves writing for Brantford Expositor
•    Needed to have Six Nations involved WWI as has documented photographs/faces and names to it for the first time in history of Indigenous people
•    Worked with Paula Whitlow at Woodland, groups of museums people, teachers, librarians,
•    Primary objective is commemoration of those people at home and overseas
•    Contextualize it using social aspect of WWI as lesson for living history at the high school level (Brantford CI in particular) which appeals to boys and girls
•    GWCA group is neutral and not dominated by any institutions
•    Laurier Brantford has given space and backing
•    lecture series and movie series in Brantford started a year ago to begin commemorations (7 speakers based in WWI) and this year lecture series continues
•    Film series was problematic -- expensive and movies not current added to the issue of getting people to sit for more than an hour is difficult

Woodland Cultural Centre
•    Paula trying to track down photos of Six Nations soldiers and work done on the home front  (so far only a few)
•    Open house at Woodland to get archival info
•    Six Nations sent the most men of any First Nation and this was voluntary not conscripted
•    Planning an exhibit in August at Woodland

Six Nations Legacy Consortium
•    applying for funding for dance-based performance art to tell WW1 story in a creative way
•    Britain has lots of money for funding especially for Indigenous peoples around the world in order to “bury” imperialist roots
•    Also focus on women’s stories of war effort
•    Can also get funding for untold stories
•    Britain has lots of heritage and arts money

•    Flames of War film TVO

Lambton Museum
•    doing WWI history in Petrolia and oil barons
•    Sarnia becomes city in 1914 and can pair two events possibly?

Comments and Discussion:
Is there more public support for WWI than 1812 commemorations?
•    yes it affected most families and is a more recent, memorable history
•    can relate even to new immigrants as many have family connections to WWI
•    tie into recent boom in genealogy
•    problem with 1812 funding and failed tourism dollars (lots of events that were poorly attended and didn’t have tourist draw hoped for)
•    how much is your community willing to put into it?
•    success will come from communities, especially industrial hubs of Hamilton, Brantford, etc.
•    consider community stories such as the switch from Berlin to Kitchener

How/who can we partner with organizations for events?
•    Great War Flying Museum (http://www.greatwarflyingmuseum.com/) does small community/airfield events
•    groups with military vehicles
•    Empire Days (these countryside events encouraged people to buy Victory
Bonds or enlist
•    McMaster University archive has largest trench map collection and
     WWI collection (http://library.mcmaster.ca/archives/)
o    honour roll of those who died
•    get media, academics and high schools involved
o    Hamilton Spectator, Gordon Southam (from Southam publishing family) served as a  Major and   killed at The Somme
•    Warplane Heritage and Spectator did 60th anniversary of VE Day
•    Spectator archives
•    Suggestions for art galleries to commemorate WWI?
•    floating exhibitions, G of 7 or war artists
•    Beaverbrook has materials
      History Departments at universities
•    Mohawk Institute had cadet program and lots of photos of boys marching and a gun rifle range
•    Fanshawe has WWI exhibition and living history reenactment resources
•    Ruthven doing lectures and WWI education group (Thompsons combat component)
•    can we partner with other sites?
•    Hamilton Museum of Steam and Tech is having a Steampunk Makers Fair in fall
      with focus on Victorian design and inventions
•    consider Twitter accounts for diaries, letters etc.

Ideas for funding sources?
•    Ruthven has marionettes related to Thompson family in WWI and received  funding through       Veterans Affairs (?)
•    outreach for kids grade 7 and 8 can get funding and suggested/should focus on the
      6 historical principles of curriculum (Luke mentioned there is a webinar on Thursday, January 23  about this)
•    Sarah has the 6 points (and can share with the group on HME site) but focus is learning how to do historical research, using primary resources, critical thinking and skills
•    Service ON to order curriculum
     Community Foundation grant

The Great Recession and “where, for the best price, can I get…”: creating and running education programs on a budget: HME Meeting Monday October 21, 2013

Leader: Merri Fergusson

The food was great, and discussion lively last night at the Argyll Street Grill; we happily welcomed a few new faces to the group with our first bring-an-intern meeting.
Here are some notes from the evening.

Free stuff

• Kijiji and Craigslist but spend time going through it
• church and estate sales
• Scrapbooking supplies and old art and craft supplies
• Wallpaper stores will give away free samples or discontinued ends, as will paint stores. Just leave your name with them and when season changes, they discard old samples.
• In Mississauga: The Creative Zone joint effort between Catholic and Public Peel Region and everything is free but need to be from the area or school board. They get things donated in bulk
• Quilling a paper shredder will cut paper finely enough for this craft
• Senioropolis are professional downsizers will give to charitable or non-profit. Companies who relocate seniors from homes to apartments will give away stuff.

Low Cost Stuff

• Liaise with these companies to get stuff
• Habitat for Humanity Restore for paint
• Recycle Stores
• Burlington Reuse Centre 
• Thrift stores
• For City employees, there’s internal sell/trade pages
• Lyrical / Staples but for 40 percent less
• Popourri site to sell or give away (Mississauga City Employee pages)
• Baldwin craft supplies in Burlington Appleby Line
• Michaels 40 percent off coupons online
• purchase following seasons when everything is on sale
• Dollar stores
• Lens Mill Store in Stoney Creek
• Liquidation Centres
  Steel City Surplus @ 182 Dundurn St S, Hamilton, ON L8P 4K3 905-526-8551

Running Programs

Issues: Budget and staff cuts

Sometimes supplies are old and tired and too well used

Reflects badly; what's the pull to get schools to our sites?  Especially if your supplies are tired-looking, broken, missing

people with fresh ideas don't get the time

introducing technology into education programs and how to get funding

theatre companies have storage and may be willing to partner

eg: Players Guild on Queen Street in Hamilton

Mississauga Museum

intern from OISE project with two camps

partner with drama, dance and history Bradley Mashup

concept, introduction, and curriculum; had 70 hours to work

reworked old camp idea and refreshed it

critique and feedback from staff the intern put all of the evaluations together

Outreach vs at institution

Outreach can be a cheaper way to teach about our collection while using school resources (rather than museum resources) and link to curriculum.

History Matters Association WWI Benares Historic House in Mississauga

schools resist due to hiring cost of supply teachers

free vs paid tours: free might mean no commitment

Computers for Schools Program St Catharines

Tech Soup: good place for inexpensive software

webinar by historical society for new Ontario curriculum

Building Stories heritage assets in your community from Waterloo and mobile App

Changes between old and new curriculum