The HRC thanks Anne Farrow for serving as guest author for the following entry. Anne is the senior content editor for the Encyclopedia of Connecticut History Online, a project of the Connecticut Humanities Council. Formerly a career journalist, Anne co-authored Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged and Profited from Slavery. Marcia Trotta, co-editor for Museums, Libraries and Urban Vitality, is a reading specialist with the Connecticut Humanities Council. When Hartford's leaders pinned - very...
The HRC thanks new Heritage Advisory Committee member Kathleen Craughwell-Varda for writing the following entry. Kathy is a museum curator/consultant with more than twenty-five years experience in the field, and has been an assessor for the Conservation Assessment Program for 16 years. She is currently the Project Manager for Conservation ConneCTion, Connecticut's response to the IMLS "Connecting to Collections" initiative. Conservation Concerns: A Guide for Collectors and Curators has been answering some of the most...
Museums should serve a social purpose as they are products of the society that support them.Robert R. Janes and Gerald T. Conaty used this premise to create Looking Reality in the Eye, a collection of case studies that explores how museums can move beyond education and entertainment to embrace new socially relevant missions.The idea for this book emerged from a panel presentation on museums and social responsibility at the annual meeting of the Canadian Museums...
One simple truth I've gleaned over my two decades of working with docents and tour guides is that good tours are memorable and the bad ones are never forgotten.To help my docents remember the elements of good public speaking and to avoid the pitfalls, I've developed a list of docent do's and don'ts. For backup, I would normally reach for The Good Guide which has long been my "go to" publication for all docent-related questions,...
Be direct and frank. Focus on uniqueness.Go slow.In Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want, authors James H. Gilmore and B. Joseph Pine II present an exceptionally thought-provoking and example-studded discussion about the "appeal of the real" in the current consumer-driven market. The premise here is that consumers, "no longer content just with available, affordable, and excellent offerings," purchase goods and experiences that reflect their self-image - or the image they want to portray to the world....
