MDL at the 2019 Minnesota Alliance of Local History Museums Conference

I attended the 2019 Minnesota Alliance of Local History Museums Annual Conference, held this year in Red Wing on April 24th and 25th, with pre-conference events on April 23rd. MDL was well represented with a professional table at the event, and many conference attendees stopped by. They were especially interested in the new materials on rights statements put together by the MDL/University of Minnesota rights statements standardization project team consisting of me, Greta Bahnemann, Sara Ring, and Nancy Sims. I presented about rights statements and their implementation alongside Stephanie Hess of the Northfield Historical Society, one of our rights pilot project participants, on Thursday morning.

Other interesting sessions I had an opportunity to attend while at the conference were ones on building respectful and reciprocal relationships with diverse communities, and the use of story mapping tools to tell the history of the clay industry in the Red Wing area. Kent Whitworth, Executive Director of the Minnesota Historical Society, gave the keynote, which centered on the relevance of history. There were also opportunities to visit local museums including the Pottery Museum of Red Wing and the Goodhue County Historical Society, both of which had fascinating collections. Over 250 people attended the conference this year, and it was a pleasure to see so many colleagues in one place. I am looking forward to next year's conference in Austin.