#AAMSMJ 2019-- See You in New Orleans!

I'm so pleased to be joining an incredible cohort of colleagues as Social Media Journalists for the American Alliance of Museums upcoming annual meeting in New Orleans, May 17-23.   We'll be blanketing the conference from start to finish, dawn to dusk, sharing out impressions, connections, ideas and more.  In particular, I'll be covering the Getty International Fellows and trying to take a look at global perspectives. Of course, checking out sessions from members of the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience.

Here are just a few of the other sessions I'm particularly looking forward to:

• Decolonizing Development, on the ways to rethink both inclusive staff environments and donor outreach.
• Mistakes were Made--don't miss your chance to hear--and share--big career mistakes--and have a great time along the way.
• Connecting the Dots:  A Game Show for Museum Professionals, with Kathy McLean as game show host!
• Kimberly Drew's Keynote.  If you don't follow @museummammy you should.  It will be great to hear from her in person.
• Labs, Salons and Experiments for Creative Museum Change
• Partnering with the Community to Create Collaborative Socially Engaged Exhibitions, where both staff and community members from the Newcomb Art Museum share their learnings from a collaborative project.
• Is that Hung White?  Getting Real about Diversity in Exhibitions--a great group of colleagues dive into something rarely explored.
• Is Rapid Response Collecting a Trend or the New Sustainable Standard for Collections? hearing from staff at the Brooklyn Children's Museum

I'll also be doing a stint as a volunteer in the Museums and Race Lounge on Wednesday morning, from 8;30-10:30 AM.

Here are my fellow SMJs--you can follow all of us using the hashtags #AAMSMJ and #AAM2019

• Janeen Bryant, Empathetic Museum
• Hannah Hethmon, H. Hethmon Consulting
• Matthew Ramirez, Minneapolis Institute of Art
• Angela Gala, MuseAlley
• Amanda Figueroa, National Museum of African American History and Culture
• Carla Galfano, American University Museum
• Linda Norris, International Coalition of Sites of Conscience
• Saleem Penny, Chicago Children's Museum
• Ravon Ruffin, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
• Mark Schlemmer, New-York Historical Society|
• Lanae Spruce, National Museum of African American History and Culture
• Helen Yuen, American Visionary Art Museum

Read more about them here.

Plus, I've never been to New Orleans, so there's sure to be some food and architecture in the mix. You can follow me on Instagram and Twitter as @lindabnorris; and if you see me at the conference, be sure to say hi.

See you in New Orleans!

A Newfoundland Tale: Social Media Made Me Do It

I know there are lots of people in the history museum field who are really interested in physically trying out elements of the past--what people wore, how they lived, what they made, but that's never been precisely my thing.  But this past weekend I tried versions of 17th and 18th century recipes in my own kitchen and I thought I'd share what made me do it, and what I learned.

The Colony of Avalon, perched on the eastern edge of Newfoundland, Canada, was established in 1621 by Sir George Calvert (the First Lord Baltimore) and is one of the best preserved early English colonial sites in North America.  It happens to have, as you can see at the head of the post, a spectacular location. I visited a few years ago, a friend is on their board of directors, and the museum was a participant in last fall's International Experiments in Community Engagement course I taught for JHU Museum Studies, working with my graduate students. All of those things made me pay more attention to it:  I followed their Facebook page and began to see them regularly in my Instagram feed.

This is the second summer of their experiment--the Colonial Cookoff.  Each week, from their reproduction period kitchen, they post a recipe and invite you to try it.  They share their results on social media and invite you to do the same, with the chance to win a weekly prize.  I entered the Twice and Thrice Challenge this week, making apple fritters and ginetoes and sharing my results on their Facebook page.  Apple fritters, pretty easy;  ginetoes, strange, bagel-like lumps with basil, mostly a failure. My ginotoes, top picture; experienced colonial cook ginetoes, bottom picture.

What made me do it?

• Encouragement from my friend Jane.  A personal connection remains the one of the most important way to encourage involvement at your organization.
• A website that made it seem fun.  There was historical information, but the whole site is written in a lively, accessible voice that shared failures and successes.  Not too much detail and very welcoming.
• The fact that I'd been connecting with Avalon all summer long through their Instagram feed. It's there that I got to see, discoveries they'd been making that day (not months or years later), appreciated the enthusiasm of archaeologists for a day (even in less than ideal weather), and wondered about the connections between what was being found on site and the recipes I was reading and experimenting with.   

And what are the takeaways, particularly for small museums?  I think three primary ones.  Make it fun; make it now, not then; and keep at it!  Instagram and Facebook posts that come weeks (or months apart) and only feature boring photos of people sitting at an event, or only inviting you to an event, will never hack it.  You'll never get me to spend a Friday night making ginetoes that way!