Introducing Jordyn!

Hello! My name is Jordyn Riou and I am the new intern with the Association of Nova Scotia Museums! I am originally from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, and have been living in Nova Scotia for the last two years. I am currently in my third year of the Child and Youth Study program at Mount Saint Vincent University, so I am looking forward to working with ANSM to create resources and activities for children and youth!

I am new to getting to know Nova Scotia, and always enjoy recommendations for unique experiences and places to visit in Halifax (or outside, whenever I can get access to a vehicle)! I spend much of my free time at the House of Eights dance studio, downtown. Up North, I have experience working with children and youth in a few contexts, and most recently I was an Education and Events summer student with Ecology North, so I had the chance to plan and coordinate events in the community and create resources related to environmental issues and appreciation in the NWT. 

Youth participation in the community is what drives everything that I do, and I am always looking for creative ways to develop opportunities for young people to learn through engagement and participation. I seek out youth perspectives to inform the work that I do. I can't wait for the opportunity to contribute to the upcoming projects with ANSM and bring opportunities to children and youth to learn about the history of the founding cultures of Nova Scotia.

New Reference Library Resources Available - Have a Look!

Good Morning! 

We promised you training opportunities this year, why not add training resources to the mix?

In effort to better incorporate EDI (Equity, Diversity & Inclusion) resources and move our Unlocking Community Museum Collections calls to action forward, we've been working on reviewing and diversifying the ANSM Reference Library. We recognised that our library was lacking in terms of content authored by First Nations Peoples and we sought to remedy this. 

The following titles were recommended to us by the Millbrook Cultural & Heritage Centre and primarily centre a First Nations' perspective. Browse the new books below:

Marie Battiste - Living Treaties: Narrating Mi'kmaw Treaty Relations

First Nations, Métis and Inuit lands and resources are tied to treaties and other documents, their relevance forever in dispute. Contributors share how they came to know about treaties, about the key family members and events that shaped their thinking and their activism and life’s work.

Marie Battiste - Visioning A Mi'kmaw Humanities: Indigenizing the Academy. Second Edition

In what may be termed cognitive imperialism, the academy has largely ignored Aboriginal perspectives of humanity. In this volume, Mi’kmaw and non-Mi’kmaw scholars, teachers and educators posit an interdisciplinary approach to explicate and animate a Mi’kmaw Humanities.

Doug Knockwood & Friends  - Doug Knockwood: Stories, Memories, Reflections 

Freeman Douglas Knockwood is a highly respected Elder in Mi'kmaw Territory and one of Canada's premier addictions recovery counsellors. The story of his life is one of unimaginable colonial trauma, recovery and hope.

Isabelle Knockwood - Out of the Depths: The Experience of Mi'kmaw Children at the Indian Residential School at Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia. Fourth Edition. 

In this newly updated fourth edition, Knockwood speaks to twenty-one survivors of the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School about their reaction to the apology by the Canadian government in 2008. Is it now possible to move forward?

Paula C. Madden - African Nova Scotian - Mi'kmaw Relations 

The Indigenous people of Nova Scotia, the Mi’kmaq, have been dispossessed of their lands and, since the early 1820s, confined to reserves. African Nova Scotians have also been dispossessed of lands originally granted to them by white colonial governments and settled in communities with names like Africville, Preston or Birchtown. Yet “the story of Africville, and other stories of dispossession,” argues author Paula C. Madden, “cannot be told and understood outside the context of the dispossession of Indigenous peoples.

Pamela Palmater - Indigenous Nationhood: Empowering Grassroots Citizens

Indigenous Nationhood is a selection of blog posts by well-known lawyer, activist and academic Pamela Palmater. Palmater offers critical legal and political commentary and analysis on legislation, Aboriginal rights, Canadian politics, First Nations politics and social issues such as murdered and missing Indigenous women, poverty, economics, identity and culture.

Daniel N. Paul - We Were Not the Savages

The title of this book We Were Not the Savages speaks to the truth of what happened when Europeans invaded Mi’kmaw lands in the 17th century. Prior to the European invasion the Mi’kmaq lived healthy lives and for thousands of years had lived in harmony with nature in the land they called Mi’kma’ki.

Trudy Sable & Bernie Francis - The Language of This Land, Mi'kma'ki

The Language of this Land, Mi’kma’ki is an exploration of Mi’kmaw world view as expressed in language, legends, song and dance. Using imagery as codes, these include not only place names and geologic history, but act as maps of the landscape. Sable and Francis illustrate the fluid nature of reality inherent in its expression – its embodiment in networks of relationships with the landscape integral to the cultural psyche and spirituality of the Mi’kmaq.

Ruth Holmes Whitehead - The Old Man Told Us: Excerpts from Mi'kmaw History 1500-1900

The Mi’kmaw people have been living in what is now Atlantic Canada for two thousand years or more, yet written history has largely ignored them, presenting them merely as a homogeneous mass or as statistics. Renowned historian and ethnologist Ruth Holmes Whitehead tries to redress that omission by restoring to the collective memory a true sense of the Mi’kmaw people. 

ANSM Members may borrow up to three items from the library at a time, for a maximum of three months. Please email Brittany (services@ansm.ns.ca) if interested in borrowing any of these titles.

Happy Reading! 

Virtual School Programming: Decision Making for Small Museums

Hello! 

With school back in session, I thought it would be a good time to bring you another webinar review, this time about virtual school programming. Presented by the Ontario Museum Association, this webinar discusses the questions that small and rural museums need to consider when deciding whether and how to create virtual school programs. 

There are many benefits of virtual programming, especially for small and rural museums. They offer a great way to increase the accessibility of your museum, whether it be physical or financial. Virtual field trips have the ability to reach a wider and more diverse audience of students, including those outside of your local community. Online programs are often more financially-friendly options for both schools and museums. Students can save on travel costs and museums can save on supplies and staffing costs. Not only do virtual programs help save money, they also require less of a time commitment. 

Despite all of the benefits, there are still many important points to consider when taking on the challenge of creating a virtual program for your museum. The webinar provides a helpful worksheet that museums can work through in the program development process to make sure they are thinking about all of the necessary points. If you are thinking about developing a new virtual school program for your museum or re-evaluating an existing program, you may find this worksheet useful. Here is a brief overview of these key areas of consideration:

Why?

Why do you want to do virtual school programming? Before creating a program, you should be thinking about what goals you are hoping to achieve by introducing new virtual options. Maybe you want to offer something new to local schools, engage with new schools outside of your community, or you are seeking a new stream of revenue generation. Ultimately, you will need to decide whether or not virtual school programming is the best way for your museum to reach its goals. 

Who?

Who is your target audience? After deciding to move forward with the creation of a virtual program, you will need to decide what grade level, school district, and communities you are hoping to reach. You will also need to think about how you will promote your program to these target audiences, whether it be sharing it through professional organizations, traditional media, or by contacting educators directly.

What?

What is the topic of your program? Think about what your museum knows best and develop a program that fits into your specific area of expertise. Once you choose a topic, think about how it can be tailored to suit the intended audience of the program. As a school program, you will also need to create strong curriculum connections within your program. Educators will not book a program unless they can justify how it serves their curriculum needs, so do your research and make these connections clear. 

How?

So now that you have decided what type of program you are going to develop and who its audience will be, you will need to turn your attention to the logistics of how it will operate. Will it be synchronous or asynchronous? What technical equipment will you need to run the program? What are the staffing requirements to build and deliver the program? How will you measure success? 

No matter what type of virtual school program you decide to offer, one of the most important things to keep in mind is to start with something small and manageable and scale up from there. It is perfectly fine to get creative and test out different program ideas until landing on the one that works best for your museum. Happy programming! 

- Madeline

Introducing Naomi and the Unlocking of Made in Nova Scotia

Good morning everyone,
As many of you are aware, last summer a new initiative began to Unlock Collections. The conversations between museums and cultural communities across Nova Scotia revealed that we have much to learn, and much to do. Everyone agreed that the conversational sessions were day 1, and there is a long journey ahead. Before the holidays we gave you an update on progress, and we are very pleased to share one more way in which we are collectively, collaboratively, unlocking museum collections. 

Years ago ANSM partnered with the Museum of Industry to develop a database of Nova Scotian manufacturers, which was launched on NovaMuse as "Made in Nova Scotia". MOI began this work in the late 1980s and worked with numerous community partners and county museums on the research. We were honoured to pick up the torch on this important work, and link businesses and artisans with their works in museum collections. It has been one of our "rainy day" projects ever since, and there are now 8,456 profiles of manufacturers, artists and craftspeople dating back to the 1600s. 

Our Unlocking conversations made us recognize how difficult it is for cultural communities to identify their community members and stories within this resource. Cultural affiliations were never part of Made in Nova Scotia, and we want to correct this. Cue Naomi. She is coming on board to do some research on Nova Scotia's creative community and tag businesses and individuals' cultural affiliations. This is a monumental task, but we all agree that it will be interesting and worthwhile, and we just need to eat the elephant one bite at a time. Here's a little message from Naomi:

Hello! My name is Naomi Richards, and I am a volunteer with ANSM. I am currently in the Master of Information program at Dalhousie University and I’m really eager to become involved with the Nova Scotia museum community as well as learn more about the preservation of cultural heritage. I’m also very interested to work with the data management systems utilized by museums and get more hands-on experience working in the GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives, and museums) sector. I have a BSc in Biology and a minor in Classical Studies from the University of British Columbia, which has given me a broad set of interests and background experience to draw upon. I’ve previously volunteered with the Museum of Vancouver and worked as a Circulation Assistant at the University of British Columbia's Music, Art, and Architecture Library.   

Outside of school I love to read, knit, and dance! Halifax is the fourth city I’ve lived in, my favourite of which is Edinburgh Scotland, where I studied abroad in my undergraduate degree. Thank you so much to the ANSM for having me, this is an invaluable experience. 

Welcome to 2023 - ANSM Update

It's a new year. Let's start again.

ANSM normally does a retrospective on the previous year over the holidays but this year ANSM staff did something we didn't do much over 2022... we rested. It was a much needed rest and now we are all back with a new perspective and new resolutions.  

Last year was a busy year for everyone - it was almost as though everyone tried to cram in all the stuff they missed over the two lockdown years into last year. The amount of stuff that got done was amazing but the pace was not sustainable. As ANSM moves into 2023 we have lots of big announcements to make, one of the biggest being that we are reconsidering the pace we work at and how to most efficiently address museum needs. With this in mind, ANSM has three big announcements to start the new year.

1. TRACK Update

This fall ANSM staff attended the four regional heritage group meetings.  It was so great to be at the meetings in person again. Many of you were at these meetings and heard our announcement that we are taking another development year for TRACK. In other words - no museums is being "evaluated" in 2023.  

Starting in April 2023 the TRACK program will launch another year of professional development opportunities for enrolled museums. Work will continue behind-the-scenes on the assessment document, including more rounds of piloting. We plan to have a final document to share by the fall regional heritage group meetings with full program launch for 2024.

Traditionally, museums were evaluated once every four years, with each museum completing the full document in one year and then having three years to prepare for their next evaluation.  At the regional meetings, a new approach was presented. Called the thematic approach, we proposed that assessments (formerly evaluation) would switch to all museums completing part of the assessment each year. For example, everyone would do Governance and Management in one year.  The program would stay on a 4 year cycle but museums would only do 25% of the work each year.  In addition to a more controlled workload, this also allows museums to work together on the yearly theme.

We are pleased to say the switch to the thematic approach has been approved and will start next year. The feedback we received on this proposed change has been very positive across the province. Stay tuned for more information in the coming months, but for now, know that yes, 2024 is "your museum's year" to participate in TRACK.

2.  Museum Studies Program

Last year was the conclusion of the third year, of the three year Museum Studies Program cycle, which has now been offered three times. We decided that many threes must mean something.  The Museum Studies Program has undergone some changes over the last years, with one of the biggest being the switch from in-person to virtual due to the pandemic. Additionally, new opportunities such as the Unlocking Community Museum Collections sessions and the TRACK program have had us all rethinking what training ANSM can offer.  

In order to give ANSM some time to reconsider the Museum Studies Program and how it can best serve our members, the program is being paused for 2023. It felt that the third end of the three year cycle was the right time. (Remember all those threes?) We have a plan to help anyone who is near completing their Museum Studies Program certificate and will be in touch with those only a few credits short by the end of January.  If you feel you are one of these people, don't hesitate to reach out to us.  

ANSM will still be offering many training opportunities. In addition to the previously mentioned TRACK courses, ANSM will offer several standalone opportunities this year, including:

- Introduction to Museums Course from Museum Studies Program 

- ANSM Fall Conference

- Re-Org workshop to be taught by Anita Price at the end of March, 2023 

More information on all these training opportunities will be announced soon, so watch the Beacon.

3. Letter to Minister of Communities, Culture, Tourism, and Heritage

At the fall regional heritage group meetings ANSM asked museums to join us in an advocacy campaign to Minister Dunn and the Department of Communities, Culture, Tourism, and Heritage.  We had a great response to these letters and look forward to following up with an in-person meeting with the minister this month.  

In order to build on this work, ANSM is trying to start an Advocacy Working Group.  We know from the regional meetings there is a lot of passion for this work, but ANSM cannot lead this alone. We have received some interest in joining this group from the Central region, but this will not work if all four regions are not involved.  If you think you can be part of this group, please email Maggie director@ansm.ns.ca. In your email, please include your resume and a short note saying why you would like to be a part of this group. 

In addition to these news items, we are actively moving forward on other activities that began last year:

Unlocking Collections

During the summer and fall sessions, we acknowledged that this work was just beginning. We committed to sharing an update on progress by the end of the year. Updates went out to community partners in December, and we updated our website so that everyone can see the session recaps (one for each cultural group which includes key discussion themes and calls to action) and work that has happened since we met in person.

CollectiveAccess & NovaMuse

After 11 years with the same hosting company, we have switched to a new one which better meets our growing needs. We are very pleased to see NovaMuse and the databases running faster and smoother, and are excited to have some room to grow. We have two funding applications pending adjudication that would let us make some exciting improvements to the database and website: assessing audiovisual materials, working with CNSA on archival features, and stepping into digital storytelling. We will be sure to announce if our applications are successful, and ask everyone to keep their fingers and toes crossed!

Partnerships

We are excited to strengthen relationships and partnerships this year that will benefit our member museums and the communities they serve. 

A number of these partnerships are with post-secondary institutions as we strive to support emerging professionals. We are currently in talks with MSVU to host a Child and Youth Studies student over the winter months. They would be tasked with NovaMuseEd work that directly responds to the Unlocking calls to action. We have also confirmed with SMU that Karin will continue teaching the Museum Fundamentals and Unlocking Collections course, and this year ANSM will be helping to find part-time summer placements in museums for the students. Additionally, ANSM will be a guest lecturer in two Dal public history courses.

We are on the cusp of launching our annual Fleming College class assignment. This will be the 12th year for this project, and over the years students have edited and enriched over two thousand records from almost 60 museums. Wow. We have all learned so much from the process and research work. This is such a great example of what can be done through collaboration. 

Looking ahead, we have circulated a summer internship proposal to three museum studies schools in the hopes of bringing someone on board to assist with Unlocking calls to action from May through August. Opportunities feel almost endless, and we see this as a chance for an emerging professional to get some great experience that helps museums and communities move forward.

And last but not least, we are pleased to share that we have a new volunteer starting with ANSM. Naomi reached out to us after seeing our presentation on Unlocking Collections at the CNSA's annual conference. After a very fun brainstorming time we have hit upon a great big task that she's excited to start - adding cultural affiliations to the Made in Nova Scotia profiles of artists, craftspeople, manufacturers and makers. It's been a while since any work has been done on this data, so we're all keen to see what she discovers over the coming months and years. Yes that's right, she wants to work on this over the coming years. How amazing is that?!