Working with Craftspeople at Museums and Historic Sites - Live Webinar

Webinar Description

Interpreting historic craft can be more than demonstrating blacksmithing and candle dipping once a year at the spring festival; it’s a chance to engage your visitors in hands-on discovery and reach new audiences of artists and makers. Exploring the labor, technology, and creativity that went into crafting household goods, food, structures, and more can help build historical empathy and critical thinking with audiences, and demonstrating these techniques can offer opportunities for tactile learning and foster intergenerational and intercultural connections. Crafter communities like guilds and clubs also have tremendous partnership potential and expertise to lend to our work as demonstrators, curators, consultants, and advisors.

Join Aja Bain, AASLH’s Senior Manager of Professional Development and Publications and a crafter/textile enthusiast, for an engaging exploration of how sites can interpret historic crafts in new ways, connect with crafting communities, and foster new understandings of historic objects and the people who made them. Whether your institution wants to interpret craft for the first time or rethink existing programs, this webinar will offer case studies and ideas for working with craftspeople to create educational opportunities and better understand your own collections.

Details

DATE: May 1, 2025

TIME: 3:00 - 4:15 pm EASTERN (Remember to adjust for your time zone)

COST: $25 members/$45 nonmembers

ACCESS: You will be provided with instructions on how to access the live event upon registration.

Learning Outcomes

During this webinar, participants will learn about:

● Understanding historic crafts and artisans and their contemporary equivalents

● Connecting with local craft communities and practitioners

● Engaging with crafters and artisans as an audience themselves

● Incorporating craft and interpretation of craftspeople into your interpretation, programs, and exhibits

● How craft interpretation can draw new audiences, partnerships, and appreciations of historic work and material culture

While we try to be as thorough as possible, one webinar cannot cover every aspect of a topic. As such, this webinar will not discuss:

● Histories of specific crafts or trades

● Living history best practices

● Visual art separately from craft, or artist in residence programs

Recording and Captioning

We will record this event. Captioning is provided for the live event.

Connecting the Content

This webinar will especially help organizations enrolled in STEPS address multiple standards under the Interpretation and Audience sections of the STEPS program.

The Standards and Excellence Program for History Organizations (STEPS) from AASLH is a self-study, self-paced assessment tool designed specifically for small- to mid-sized history organizations, including volunteer-run institutions. Through a workbook, online resources, and an online community, organizations enrolled in STEPS review their policies and practices and benchmark themselves against national standards.

How to Register

Click here for instructions on how to register yourself or another user for this event. 

How to Register for this Event

Cancellation/Refunds for onsite workshops must be submitted in writing via email to learn@aaslh.org or mail to 2021 21st Ave S., Suite 320 Nashville, TN 37212. Cancellations made prior to the early-bird registration deadline date will receive a full refund. Cancellations made between the early-bird deadline date and eight days prior to the workshop will be subject to a $55 processing/materials charge. No refunds will be given within seven days of the workshop date. AASLH is not responsible for cancellations that were mailed or emailed but never received.

Cancellations/Refunds for online professional development (webinars and online courses) must be submitted in writing via email to learn@aaslh.org or mail to 2021 21st Ave S., Suite 320 Nashville, TN 37212. Cancellations made prior to the start date for the online course or the day of the webinar will be given a full refund. No refund will be given after the start date for the online course or on/after the day of the webinar. Registrants may transfer their registration to another person. Registrations cannot be transferred between courses or course sessions. AASLH is not responsible for cancellations that were mailed or emailed but never received.

If you have any questions, please contact AASLH Professional Development staff at learn@aaslh.org or 615-320-3203.