Reimagining Historic House Museums

Turino and van Balgooy have translated their acclaimed one-day workshop, Reimagining Historic House Museums, into a provocative and eminently actionable volume that should be required reading anyone in or out of the field who cares about the future of our country's historic places. -- Sean Sawyer, Ph.D., Washburn & Susan Oberwager President, The Olana Partnership At times practical, at times thought provoking, Reimagining Historic House Museums: New Approaches and Proven Solutions is both a checklist for the basic operation of your museum, and a bundle of wildly divergent ideas to take your organization to the next level. Editors Turino and Van Balgooy set out on an ambitious journey, bringing the expertise of multiple scholars and practitioners in the field together in one volume. The result is an utterly readable book that addresses fundamentals and essentials, audiences and different approaches, methods and imaginations. Together with the list of resources after each of its 26 chapters, in combination with the extensive bibliography at the end of the book, Reimagining Historic House Museums may well make this volume the go-to resource par excellence, for staff, board and volunteers in historic house museums, at every level of their career or engagement. -- Remko W.T. Jansonius, Deputy Director, Collections and Curatorial Affairs, Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, Miami, FL, Board Secretary, DEMHIST (ICOMs International Committee for Historic House Museums) Can historic house museums, long a staple of sanitized pasts, be repurposed for new audiences? Could they even `enliven participatory democracy? Turino and van Balgooy, in Reimagining Historic House Museums, make the case that they already have. Both prescription and provocation, this guide is especially for readers who know that educating visitors sometimes means re-educating boards. -- Seth C. Bruggeman, Director, Temple University Center for Public History Every chapter of Reimagining Historic House Museums pulls from the best in the field. From the chapter authors to the research, writings, and model sites, each facet of running a historic house and making it relevant to the community it serves is well covered. This title will become indispensable as a resource for any sized museum. -- Andrea Malcomb, Director, Molly Brown House Museum

Since 2015, co-editors Kenneth C. Turino and Max A. van Balgooy have led the popular reinventing historic house workshop for the American Association for State and Local History. Kenneth Turino is Manager of Community Partnerships and Resource Development at Historic New England. He oversees community engagement projects throughout the New England states and is responsible for exhibition partnerships at the Eustis Estate, Langdon House, and Sarah Orne Jewett Museum and Visitor Center. He consults on interpretive planning and community engagement projects at historic sites, including Madame John's Legacy in New Orleans and the Palmer Warner House in Connecticut. Ken teaches courses on the future of historic houses in the Tufts University Museum Studies Program and is vice president of the board of the House of Seven Gables in Salem, Massachusetts. Max A. van Balgooy is president of Engaging Places, a design and strategy firm that connects people and historic places. For more than thirty years, he has worked with a wide range of historic sites on interpretive planning and business strategy, including Cliveden, Molly Brown House, Haas-Lilienthal House, James Madisons Montpelier, and Andrew Jacksons Hermitage. He is an assistant professor in the Museum Studies Program at George Washington University, directs the History Leadership Institute (formerly known as the Seminar for Historical Administration), and regularly leads workshops for the American Association for State and Local History.

Table of Contents Introduction by Kenneth Turino and Max A. van Balgooy Part I Fundamentals and Essentials Chapter 1Imagining a Reimagining Process for House Museums by Max A. van Balgooy Chapter 2 Enterprising House Museums by Lawrence J. Yerdon Chapter 3 Evaluation is Not Just Nice, It is Necessary by Conny C. Graft Chapter 4 The Essential Role of Boards in Reimaging House Museums by Donna Ann Harris Chapter 5 Reaching New Heights with Volunteers in Historic House Museums by Alexandra Rasic Chapter 6 Surviving a Capital Campaign: A Slightly Irreverent Guide to Fundraising by Nina Zannieri Chapter 7 Success Factors for Small Historic House Museums by Monta Lee Dakin and Steve Friesen Chapter 8 Reimagine House Museums: Loosen Up but Dont Let Go! By Thomas A. Woods Chapter 9 Value of History Statement by History Relevance Part II Audiences Chapter 10 Using Historic House Museum Audiences to Drive Change by Katherine Kane Chapter 11 Cultural Heritage Travelers and Historic House Museums by Amy Jordan Webb Chapter 12 Finding Numen at Historical Sites by Ron M. Potvin Chapter 13 Community Engagement: Radical Renewal for Historic House Museums by Dawn DiPrince Part III Different Approaches to Familiar Topics Chapter 14 Do Something Transformative by Callie Hawkins and Erin Carlson Mast Chapter 15 Listening for the Silences: Stories of Enslaved and Free Domestic Workers by Jennifer Pustz Chapter 16 Interpreting Womens Lives at Historic House Museums by Mary A. van Balgooy Chapter 17 Where the Magic Happened by Susan Ferentinos Chapter 18 Reflecting Race and Ethnicity in House Museums by Jane M. Eliasof and Claudia Ocello Chapter 19 Why Do Furnishings Matter?: The Power of Furnishings in Historic House Museums by Laura C. Keim Chapter 20 Rethinking Architecture in the Realm of House Museum Interpretation by Cheryl A. Bachand Chapter 21 Looking Beyond the Front Door to Find Spirit of Place by Lucinda A. Brockway Part IV Methods Chapter 22 The Historic House Museum Tour: A Matter of Life and Death by Patricia West Chapter 23 Everyones History Matters: School Programs at Historic New England by Carolin Collins Chapter 24 Creating Minds-On Exhibitions in Historic House Museums by Robert Kiihne Part V Imagining New Kinds of House Museums Chapter 25 Reinventing the Historic House Museum: Three Potential Futures by Elizabeth Merritt with responses by Carol B. Stapp, Susie Wilkening, Brian Joyner, Jorge A. Hernandez, Emiliano Nano Calderon, Nathan Ritchie, Barbara Silberman, and Joe McGill Chapter 26 Yes, America, You Need Another House Museum (But Read This Book First) by Kenneth Turino Bibliography National and Regional Organizations About the Editors and the Contributors