Historical Museum Advisory Board Agenda and Packet 2024 03 20

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city° f 6 Louisville Historical Museum Memorandum To: Historical Museum Advisory Board From: Gigi Yang, Museum Services Supervisor Date: March 20, 2024 Re: Museum Services Supervisor's Report Museum staff are working hard on all fronts with a slate of upcoming programs and long-term work projects. We had a successful Valentine's themed First Friday in February where visitors viewed historic valentines and made their own versions to send. In March, staff installed a new front window exhibit, "Friends and Enemies: Louisville during WWII" highlighting the experiences of Japanese, Italian, and German immigrants and residents who were designated as "enemy aliens." The First Friday event in March explored Japanese internment camps and brought Marge Taniwaki and Bill Okubo to share their personal and family experiences with internment and the 442nd military unit of Japanese soldiers. Marge and Bill will be returning for a more formal presentation at the Library on March 16. We will continue exploration of enemy aliens and Louisville on March 28th with an evening presentation by Museum staff member Sophia Imperioli. We are pleased to be able to dig more deeply into immigrant experiences and share Louisville history through this new lens. In April, Museum staff will also be welcoming several large tours of 20-30 people. BVSD Latino Gifted students and their families will come for a morning of hands-on activities around daily life and immigration. The Rotary Club will also come for an afternoon tour of the Museum to learn about Louisville history. Museum staff will also be participating in judging for National History Day in March and April and will be awarding the Louisville, Colorado History Award to best projects about mining, labor rights, or immigration in the Junior and Senior categories for the State competition for middle and high school students. We are continuing work with re -organizing collections spaces and preparing to hire two summer interns to assist with collections inventory and outreach. At the end of February, Museum staff and two HMAB members- David Hosansky and Rebecca Ferguson, participated in a strategic planning retreat to develop strategic priorities for the Museum for 2024-2026. Museum staff will continue working with the priorities to develop their workplan for the next few years. We have also begun work on the STEPS program (Standards and Excellence Program for History Organizations) through the American Association for State and Local History and will be sharing fundamental Museum standards with the HMAB and Louisville History Foundation throughout the year. The Museum recently completed its application for continued grant funding from the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD) for 2025. The Museum received $33,085 as a Tier III institution for 2024.This generous funding will be used to support projects related to improving collections, outreach, and EDI perspectives.