Categories: Movie

MEMBERS MOVIE: 2020 in Review

Like like everyone else everywhere we started 
January 2020 with a great big smile on our face  
thinking it was gonna be a wonderful year. We had 
our annual meeting, showed off our numbers from  
2019 which we were very excited about and sat down 
to do a lot of planning for the rest of the year  
thinking about all the programs 
and events and exhibits to come.
The next couple months we were busy. We 
put on a family day called Railroads.
We started a drawing group that 
uses objects from our collection.
We completed the first two of six history units 
and reached over a thousand primary age students.
We worked with high school 
classes studying Mark Twain.
We partnered with Elmira College theater students 
to present World W II letters from our collection.  
We participated in the area’s annual Book Fest.
We presented our popular Out to 
Lunch talks on Elmira’s Elixirs;  
A Tale of Murder; and the Luck 
of the Irish in Chemung County.
Then March hit, and we closed our 
doors to comply with the state mandate.  
Numbers went out the window. Staff were able to 
start working from home but we were inventing how  
to run the museum on the fly as we learned 
to do things remotely and from far away.
We were able to keep working  
by setting up remote offices. I know my 
cats were thrilled to have me at home.
In January we’d received a grant from the 
South Central Regional Library Council to  

digitize our Black Oral History collection. With
the help of our volunteers working from home
we were able to digitize, transcribe, and
post that material online in record time.
In May, we launched the COVID Memory
Project designed to capture Chemung
County’s diverse experience of the
pandemic. We’ve interviewed over
30 people so far. If you would like to
participate, call me. (ask for Rachel)
We prepared upcoming exhibits
and added new online features.
We offered members a special online
tour of our exhibit Whole Cloth:
Textile Industry in Chemung County.
We increased our online offerings
and shared behind the scenes looks
at what we would continue to do.
We put our annual Civil War talks online.
We created short history videos teachers could
share with their students learning remotely.
We received a Community Foundation Grant to host
a public health poster contest for students.
We continued to write and publish
original local history blogs each week.
We continued to answer research questions.
Our community also stepped up to support us with
donations in lieu of attending fundraising events.
We received grants from the New York state
Council of the Arts, New York Humanities,
local businesses, members, and a large
donation from an anonymous donor.
We worked with state and county
health guidelines for reopening,
which we did in early July
with brand new protocols.
We created pop-up and online exhibits
and increased our social media followers.
We had an outdoor walking tour
as an option for visitors.
Unable to host our annual Mark Twain talks,
we invited scholars to contribute
short videos reflecting on Twain’s
work. We put together a 30-minute video
with speakers from around the nation.
We said farewell to Christine Gunderson
and welcomed our newest member,
Suzanne Runyan to help manage the office.
With help from the County Health Department, we
planned our annual Woodlawn Cemetery Ghost Walk.
We carried it off by making
some well-received changes.
We’ve streamlined our online presence.
We increased our volunteer base adding new
faces and fresh energy to help with both our
online and in-person work. We added a new gift
shop online, which means you can access our shop
anytime of the day as well as sign up and
renew your membership, and make donations.
We rallied, and with the help of J.D. Iles and
Gerard Burke we switched our fall fundraising
event to an entertaining virtual event, and we
actually sold more tickets than we did last year!
Our online numbers have grown
as people continue to respond to
our stories and images.
You like us, you really like us!
Without a crystal ball we don’t pretend that we
can see into the future. As a staff we’ve taken
this opportunity to increase access where we
can both online and here at the museum. We are
open regular hours and look forward to more people
coming to visit or to study at the Booth Library.
Our galleries are quiet, clean and waiting
for you when you’re ready to come back.
This year it’s not been about the
numbers – they’re going to recover.
It has been about the people: the
people on staff, people who volunteer,
the people who visit, people who are members,
the people in our community. Thank you.
Share
sam

Conten writer at FlipReview who specialise in Gadgets review, food critics, app and games review, car and bike review, book reviews, movies reviews, tv-series reviews and many more.

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sam

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