Outreach through OctoberCraft

Dia de los Muertos arts & crafts

Looking for ways to reach out to the community and prove that a museum can be a fun place for families to spend the day sometimes takes more than talking about the cool exhibits you have and what kids can learn.  Sometimes, you just have to focus on the fun and let the learning creep up on your visitors- especially the younger ones.

Learning to use a sewing machine

To get families excited about coming out over this last weekend, we put on our first- and hopefully not last!- OctoberCraft. A day of fun, costumes, arts and crafts. We advertised through Facebook, community bulletin boards, and word of mouth.  We crossed out fingers that we might get 20 people to come out. By the end of Saturday, over 70 people had come out and everyone seemed to hav a good time.

For the past 3 years Bob Diaz has come out for Halloween to do crafts and stories centered on Dia de los Muertos.  This year we also had exhibit designer, photographer, and bag-maker Michael Field and his wife Stephanie Bedwell come out to do bags.  Sticking with the Dia de los Muertos theme, kids drew colorful skulls on fabric, then learned how to use a sewing machine to turn their fabric into bags perfect for an evening of trick-or-treating.  For many of the kids, this was their first time on a sewing machine, and several took to it like pros!

After making their bags, the kids discovered that Michael wasn't just great on a sewing machine- he's pretty awesome behind a camera too! His seasonal exhibit: PHOTOLAB: Michael Field: Designer, Hiker, Photographer is currently on display in the museum, and they were excited to see the different hiking bags he'd made and compare them to the bags they had just learned to make.

Modeling their bags, and Michael's hiking bags in PHOTOLAB: Michael Field: Designer, Hiker, Photographer

And no craft event is complete without the chance to do some coiled clay! Kids in costumes ranging from princesses to skeletons to spacemen practiced making clay pots and 'spooky lanterns'. It was great watching everyone have fun, and also getting the chance to engage with the exhibits in between their crafts.  This was a successful event that brought families out to the museum and gave them a chance to see the full range of what we have to offer them in a relaxed and fun atmosphere.

SAA Conference Session Success!

Caitlin, Anne, Jessica, Kelsey & Caitlin celebrating a successful SAA session!

Many of you know one of the reasons I headed to the Society of American Archivists national convention in Cleveland this year was to give a presentation.  Over the last several months I've been working with colleagues (and now friends) from across the country on a panel discussion called "You Do What? Nontraditional Outreach that Works!"

Caitlin Brennecke with Troy Historic Village; Caitlin Christian-Lamb with Davidson College; Kelsey Duinkerke with Thomas Jefferson University; Jessica Holden with the University of Massachusetts, Boston; and I gave a panel discussion moderated by the wonderful Michelle Ganz from Lincoln Memorial University, Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum.  We each discussed specific outreach program from our institutions that step a little bit outside the box from "traditional" outreach.  Lectures are fun, but why not play with clay or historic medical instruments while learning?  Each of us explored the idea that outreach events should be fun and engaging as well as educational.  Being unique and going beyond the walls of our institutions meant that we could reach wider audiences and interest them in different ways. 

Between 125-150 people attended our session.  We were thrilled by the number of interesting and engaging questions people had. It was obvious people were already thinking of ways to bring our suggestions into their institutions.  This was also my first experience with "live tweeting" from audience members. It sounded a little intimidating beforehand, but we received some really wonderful comments from audience members: #saa #s303: 

"Lack of arts programs in community can be helped by local museums/archives. See Imperial Valley Desert Museum for good example"

"Just saw a fabulous session on outreach. Thanks to the panelists on #s303 #saa15!"

"s303 was a really great session on archival outreach! And they actually left plenty of time for questions."

"#saa #s303 Ceramics collection. Bringing hands-on programming TO the schools."

"Being a visible presence in the community is definitely an outreach goal of mine"

"Build outreach programs around the strongest most unique part of your collections- and if something works, be ready for growth!"

"Lesson: communities are often excited & hungry for engagement once they know what you have to offer- so let them know!"

"Outreach/service: If it's feasible, low risk/high reward, always say yes!"

Special thanks to the many people who sought us out after the session was over to tell us how much they enjoyed our talk. This was very supportive and helpful to a group of young professionals giving their first SAA conference presentations!  It was especially energizing since we were starting to look at the challenging process of turning our talk into an article for publication- your comments helped give us the push to make sure we will go through with that plan!