The AASLH Small Museums Committee has reviewed the program with an eye towards identifying sessions that might be of particular interest to anyone who works for or with small museums. It includes a few recommendations for workshops and panels, but does not include evening events, tours, or plenaries and keynote sessions.

This is not an exhaustive list! The best sessions for you to attend are the ones that meet your own professional and personal goals. These are strictly picked based on what might be of particular interest to our own audiences. There are also a lot of sessions and events to choose from this year. Remember, you can’t do everything. Hopefully, this list will help you make tough decisions.

Sessions marked with an asterisk (*) feature past or present members of the AASLH Small Museums Committee as presenters, panelists, or speakers. Those with a $ require an extra ticket and are not included in the conference registration fee.

Click here for the full conference program.

If you want to learn more about the Small Museums Committee or are interested in getting involved, we invite you to join our in-person committee meeting at 4:15 on Friday. The meeting is free and open to everyone! We want to hear from you and how the committee can help provide resources for small museums.

Wednesday, September 16, Workshops

  • Full-day: Speak Up for History: Proactive Local Advocacy ($)
  • Afternoon: Creating Strong Digital-First Content ($)
  • Afternoon: Doing Oral History ($)

Thursday, September 17

8:30-9:45 am

  • From NPS to A250: Digital Humanities in Place
  • I Give a Damn! Caring as Revolution
  • Love the Mission, Fix the Job: Rethinking Museum Work
  • Revolutionize Fundraising for Your Small Institution*

8:30–10:30 am

  • Working for “The Man”: Government Museum Employees (Working Group)

12:30-1:45 pm

  • Luncheons: Historic House Museums ($)
  • Luncheons: Small Museums*($)

1:00–3:00 pm

  • Building Humane Leadership and Work Cultures (Working Group)*

2:00–3:15 pm

  • The Burnout Escape Room: A Museum Crisis Simulation
  • Cultivating Tomorrow’s Voices in American History at Small Institutions
  • Moments That Made US: An America250 Exhibition for Everyone
  • Mapping History in Classrooms and Communities
  • Who’s In Control? Digitally Archiving Disability and Self-Advocacy

4:15–5:30 pm

  • The Label Lab: Experimenting with Interpretive Text
  • Rebel Strategies for Small Museum Workers
  • Thinking Big and Starting Small: Incorporating Accessibility in House Museums

Friday, September 18

8:30–9:45 am

  • Climate and Sustainability Revolution through Sites and Collections*
  • Place-Based Boston Museum Collaborations for the 250th and Beyond
  • Small Organizations Packing a Punch

11:00 am–12:15 pm

  • Low-Budget Strategies for Exhibit Renovations
  • A New Revolution of Belonging*
  • The Revolutionary Power of Genealogy

1-3 pm

  • Public Historians and the Housing Crisis*(Working Group)

2:00–3:15 pm

  • History in Conversation: Introducing Dialogue at Your Site
  • Joy as Resistance: A Small Museum’s Revolutionary Approach to Jewish History
  • Reclaiming Roots: Black Genealogy as Revolutionary Public History

4:15–5:30 pm

  • Be the Historian: Reframing Visitors as Historians-In-Practice
  • Small Museums Affinity Committee Open Meeting*

Saturday, September 19

9:00-10:15 am

  • Doing Revolutionary Public History in Rural Communities
  • Interpreting Slavery Through the Archives
  • New Strategies for Program Development in Museum Education

1-5 pm Workshops

  • Graphic Design 101: Theory and Practice for Public Historians ($)
  • Making the Past Speak: Makerspaces and Historic Craft in Public History ($)