ARPA Awards for Southeastern Members 2021 - 2022: Library and Museum Partnerships Projects

Kingston Immigrant Oral History Project
Lead library partner: Kingston Public Library
Primary Museum Partner: Reher Center for Immigrant Culture and History
Other Partner Organizations: Radio Kingston
County: Ulster
Contact: Brian James
Project Summary: This collaborative project will record interviews at community events organized by the Kingston Public Library and the Reher Center for Immigrant Culture and History in Spring 2022 to document, preserve, and share the oral histories of the present-day immigrant experience in the community of Kingston, NY.

 

• One of the greatest accomplishments of this project is the ways in which immigrant communities took ownership and leadership of the project and shaped the priorities.
  The Advisory Council made it clear that to successfully recruit interviewees, we needed to host recording sessions in spaces that were comfortable for them. As a result, Pastor Mercado of the Spanish-speaking Vida Real church offered to host a recording event, which contributed greatly to the diversity of the collection and introduced new individuals to our organizations.
• As a result of this project, local organizations have begun to form new partnerships.
  The directors of The Reher Center and Ulster Literacy Association met at one of the events surrounding this project and have begun working together on developing the second phase of this project. Since the initial stages of this project, the Kingston Library has collaborated with the Hudson Valley LGBTQ Community Center, MyKingstonKids, and the A.J. Williams-Myers African Roots Center on new initiatives.
• The Kingston Library is actively seeking to increase its Spanish language materials collection, partially based on interactions during this project.
• One of the intentions of the project was that the recorded stories would serve as a bridge between communities and create a deeper understanding among individuals. Though it is too soon to evaluate that outcome, we did observe this happening during the community events. Immigrants from different regions of the world talked to each other about their experiences, challenges, and impressions of the community.

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Project Description: The Kingston Library and the Reher Center for Immigrant Culture and History are launching a collaborative project to gather, document, preserve, and share the oral histories of the immigrant experience in our community. In the spring of 2022, the organizations will host two events designed to bring communities together, create a deeper understanding between individuals, give voice to marginalized populations, and create an inclusive historical record. A wide range of public organizations will be represented at each event to strengthen community connections with immigrant populations, raise awareness of available services, help shape future services, and recruit individuals to contribute their stories to the project. This proposal is motivated by a lack of materials in the library’s Local History collection on the immigrant experience of the latter twentieth and early twenty-first century, as well as the value the Reher Center for Immigrant Culture and History and Radio Kingston place on the preservation of community history, particularly during a time of rapid demographic change in our city. Recorded oral histories and transcriptions of the interviews done for the project will become part of partnering organizations’ collections, ensuring that marginalized voices are recorded in the historical record and made accessible through public institutions.

Base Ball at the Orange County Driving Park: Celebrating the History of Baseball and Harness Racing in Goshen, New York
Lead library partner: Goshen Public Library & Historical Society
Primary Museum Partner: Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame
County: Orange
Contact: Michelle Mueller
Project Summary: This collaborative project will celebrate the common ground that 19th century base ball shared with harness racing by presenting a joint exhibition, crafts, lectures, and reading programs at the Goshen Public Library & Historical Society and the Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame. In June 2022, the partners will host a free community event featuring a harness racing exhibition and a live vintage baseball game on the infield of the track in Goshen, NY.

 

• One of the biggest accomplishments of this partnership was allowing the Library to be an integral part of a large community event. The community introductions and connections for both the Library and the Museum are going to be very beneficial going forward.
• The Base Ball Leagues brought in new people who are their fans to the Goshen community and introduced them to the great historical resources at both organizations. The players of the baseball teams were thrilled with the Library’s exhibit and even studied the photographs to get insight on how their uniforms and equipment could be even more authentic.
• The team of representatives from the Library and the Museum have already begun exploring ideas about the next project to collaborate on in the future. We would love to have another baseball game, perhaps at an earlier time in the spring since June is such a busy time of year. We also would like to explore some fall options where we can work together on another topic of Goshen history.
• The Library and Museum are so grateful for this grant which gave us the opportunity to bring something new and unique to our community. We are happy to have had this opportunity which allowed us to get to know each other as organizations and individuals. Being able to learn from one another and pool resources would not have come about without this grant since it brought to fruition a great idea. It has been a great experience and the Goshen community is very appreciative.

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Project Description: This collaborative project will explore and celebrate local 19th century “base ball” and the common ground it shared with the trotting sport. Goshen Historic Track, established in 1838 is the nation’s oldest active harness track and a National Historic Landmark. This historic oval provided a public venue for trotting races, and the open space of the infield also provided a community baseball field for local and visiting teams through the early 1900s. This Spring, beginning in May, the Library and Museum will present a joint exhibition from their respective collections, family-friendly crafts, reading programs, and adult lectures highlighting the local intersection of baseball and harness racing history. The project will culminate in a large, multi-generational community event on June 11th at Goshen Historic Track. The day’s program will include a harness racing exhibition, a live vintage baseball game, and crafts.

Consolidated Digital Collection of the History of the Town of Olive
Lead library partner: Olive Free Library Association
Primary Museum Partner: Historical Society of the Town of Olive
Other Partner Organizations: The Ashokan Center, The Brunel Sculpture Park, Town of Olive
County: Ulster
Contact: Chrissy Lawlor
Project Summary: This collaborative project between the Olive Free Library and the Historical Society of the Town of Olive will organize, process, and digitize items to provide an online collection that gives the community access to materials that provide a clearer picture of life in the Town of Olive, which was torn apart during the construction of the Ashokan Reservoir.

 

• We have seen very distinct areas and the different impacts in each area of building the reservoir. Providing access to the collections owned by other organizations, which the public previously did not have access to, connects the community on a much deeper level. The Library is proud of the connections we have made through this project and look forward to continuing to collaborate with the partner organizations.

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Project Description: The Town of Olive was literally torn apart when the 8300-acre Ashokan Reservoir was built in 1906 to provide clean drinking water for New York City. Communities were forever lost or relocated as hundreds of local families were displaced, often losing their homes and land in eminent domain proceedings. This devastating process changed lives forever, and the Town has since struggled to rebuild its sense of community. The legacy of uncertainty that the Ashokan Reservoir brought to Olive is crucial to understanding how important the Olive Free Library is to residents as both a community center and a local history archive. Because the Town's history is housed by several organizations throughout the community, the Olive Free Library will partner with the Historical Society of the Town of Olive and other organizations in the Town to create a Consolidated Digital Collection of the History of the Town of Olive. The Olive Free Library plans to organize, process, and digitize items to create a centralized online repository. Some of the items of most interest are documents and maps pre-construction of the Ashokan Reservoir and the previous Town Historian's notebooks and collections. The project's goal is to provide an online collection that gives the community access to materials that provide a clearer picture of life in the Town of Olive before, during, and after the building of the Ashokan Reservoir.

Discover Marlboro: The Story of the Gomez Mill House: A Jewish Heritage Site
Lead library partner: Marlboro Free Library
Primary Museum Partner: Gomez Mill House
County: Ulster/Orange
Contact: Lindsay Jankovitz
Project Summary: This collaborative project between the Marlboro Free Library and the Gomez Mill House (Marlboro, NY) will create a virtual tour of the Gomez Mill House, one of the oldest Jewish Heritage sites in North America. The tour will be featured on the Library’s Discover Marlboro app.

 

• As a result of this project, both the Marlboro Free Library’s Local History Collection and the Gomez Mill House have become more accessible to the public.
  Since the Gomez Mill House is closed to the public for the foreseeable future due to mold remediation, the creation of this tour has removed the barrier of requiring in-person visits to experience the site. While the public cannot visit the site in-person at this time, they can now have a similar experience virtually.
• While working on this project, the Library was able to correct numerous false narratives that were present in Marlborough’s history.
  These narratives were damaging and minimized the experiences of BIPOC. This project has helped fix these narratives by sharing factual accounts of the town’s history.
• The completion of this project has resulted in more community groups viewing the library as a potential partner and has brought awareness to its resources and services.
  Since the launch of the tour, the Marlboro Free Library has been approached by different community groups who have expressed interest in partnering for future collaborations: the town historical society, the historical building committee, a local tourism group, and town Facebook groups.
• The Library and the Gomez Mill House were happy to see that the project has begun to generate a greater awareness of the history of BIPOC in Marlborough.
  As a result of this project, a local farm owner approached the Library to inquire whether his farm ever had enslaved peoples working on it. After learning more about Marlborough’s enslaved people from the tour’s content, the owner wanted to make sure that he acknowledges this past if his property was ever involved.

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Project Description: Through this project, the Marlboro Free Library will partner with the Gomez Mill House, one of the oldest Jewish Heritage sites in North America, which is located in Marlboro, N.Y. The project will create a virtual tour of the Gomez Mill House, to be featured on the Library’s Discover Marlboro app. Drawing from each institutions’ collections and records, this tour will focus on the narratives of the indigenous peoples’ use of the surrounding land, the site’s first inhabitant, Luis Moses Gomez, a Spanish Sephardic Jewish merchant who came to New York fleeing the Spanish Inquisition, and the property’s history of slavery. The Marlboro Free Library will further draw from its local history collection to relate these narratives to the town’s broader history. Artifacts, photographs, maps, and old documents will be digitized for the first time and made readily accessible to the public. Access to this tour will be made public in June 2022.

For the Love of Place: Rosendale, New York
Lead library partner: Rosendale Library
Primary Museum Partner: Century House Historical Society
County: Ulster
Contact: Katie Scott-Childress
Project Summary: This collaborative project between the Rosendale Library and the Century House Historical Society will present a series of programs to bring residents and other participants into contact with the natural, social, and cultural history of Rosendale, NY, which provided cement for the Brooklyn Bridge and the base of the Statue of Liberty.

Pictures from the events:

Native American Bird Stories with Evan T. Pritchard, April 23, 2022

At the Snyder Estate, 60 people, plus birds, attended the event.

 

 

 

 

 

Foraging the Spring Bounty with Maria Reidelbach, Saturday, June 4, 202

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Geology of Rosendale with Alex Bartholomew in the Widow Jane mine, July 31, 2022

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Our partnership with CHHS was an important step in creating a working relationship that will benefit the community into the future.
  The CHHS is and all-volunteer organization so having the library administer this program as well as manage the publicity was an excellent way to bring people into the CHHS property with the existing resources of the CHHS.
• The programs had a very broad appeal in the community and increased the library’s capacity for programming because the library has such a small building.
  Many people expressed that they are excited about things going on at the library, and about living in a community with such abundant natural resources and a rich history.
• Mailing a colorful flyer detailing the programs to every residence and business in Rosendale really raised the profile of the library.
  Numerous people have reported that they are so happy that the library is offering these programs. The library’s summer reading program has enjoyed very high attendance, which is perhaps partly because of the high quality and publicity of this program series.
• We are so grateful for the opportunity that this grant brought to our organizations and to our community.
  Negotiating the continued threats of the pandemic, our series was met with such enthusiasm because of the safety precautions we took.

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Project Description: Rosendale, a town known for its natural cement, made the Brooklyn Bridge and the base of the Statue of Liberty possible. The remnants of the once-bustling cement industry are visible today in the form of large brick kilns and mines that remain prominent features of the landscape. This project, a collaboration between the Rosendale Library and the Century House Historical Society, will present a series of programs to bring residents and other participants into contact with the natural, social, and cultural history of Rosendale. The program series includes: 1) A guided walk highlighting the rich fossils embedded in the stone of the Widow Jane Mine and the geology of Rosendale Cement. 2) A guided walk from a descendant of the Mi’kmaq people to identify spring birds and learn how birds played a central role in local Native American culture. 3) An instrument-making workshop with recycled and natural materials culminating in a small performance in the Widow Jane Mine. 4) A foraging walk on the Snyder estate to harvest edible plants and learn ways to prepare them through climate-friendly cooking. 5) A presentation on the history of the cement industry in Rosendale. 6) A workshop to identify spring ephemeral flowers and create cut paper designs. 7) A guided walk to forage and learn about the fungi that thrive in the limestone bedrock environment of Rosendale.

miSci Libratory Explorers Program
Lead library partner: Chatham Public Library
Primary Museum Partner: Museum of Innovation and Science - miSci
Other Partner Organizations: Claverack Free Library, New Lebanon Library, North Chatham Free Library, Philmont Public Library, Roeliff Jansen Community Library, Valatie Free Library
County: Columbia
Contact: Jen McCreery
Project Summary: This project will bring STEM education programs conducted by professional facilitators from the Museum of Innovation and Science - miSci - to participating public and school libraries in Columbia county New York during the Spring of 2022 to complement the work of classroom educators, to assist students impacted by COVID school closures, and to support students' STEM skill sets defined in the Next Generation Science Standards.

 

See pictures and quotes from STEM education programs in Columbia county during spring 2022!

Dry Ice Physics Theory for Second Graders, April 2022: Roeliff Jansen Community Library, Philmont Public Library, MiSci, four second grade classrooms at Taconic Hills Elementary School.

 

I would first say thank you so much for setting up the whole MISI lab “dry Ice” experiment for the day! I know a lot of effort goes into putting it all together. The Second grade students and teachers thought it was outstanding! Frank , who came to do the whole lab from MISI, was Fantastic! It was a great learning collaboration and truly appreciated! Thank You Again ~ Michael Wiegard, STREAM, Visual Arts Teacher, Taconic Hills CSD



 

Crime Lab Science, April 23, 2022: Claverack Free Library, MiSci

At the Claverack Free Library, 8 children and 9 adults (and one criminally cute dog!) learned the science behind a crime scene investigation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• All seven of the participating libraries were able to build new partnerships with our local schools, after-school programs, and other child-care organizations thanks to this project.
  Linking the programs to school curriculum needs and offering some of them off-site at our local schools enabled faculty to integrate the programs easily into the school year curriculum.
• We could not have applied for this funding without the assistance of SENYLRC’s helpful and professional staff.
  The hands-on guidance and reporting templates provided were invaluable to our success with this project.
• Partnership with CHHS was an important step in creating a working relationship that will benefit the community into the future.
  The CHHS is an all-volunteer organization so having the library administer this program as well as manage the publicity was an excellent way to bring people into the CHHS property with the existing resources of the CHHS.

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Project Description: This project will bring STEM education programs conducted by professional facilitators from the Museum of Innovation and Science - miSci - to participating libraries during the Spring of 2022. The goal is to complement the work of classroom educators and to assist students impacted by COVID school closures to gain knowledge and advanced understanding of STEM concepts that will support skill sets defined in the Next Generation Science Standards. The target audiences are students in Columbia County, including students whose families have chosen to home school. Participating libraries will work with museum facilitators to schedule programs that best reflect their local students’ needs by age group and subject area. Some examples of programs include: 1) Surviving on the Moon 101 (Grades 2–8) - Students work together to solve a series of challenges grounded in real science about living and doing research on the Moon. 2) Crime Lab Science (Grades 3–8) - “Detectives in training” identify the main types of fingerprints, explore the science of chromatography, learn about DNA and how to extract it. 3) Fun with Physics (Grades 3–8) - Students identify different forces by observing Bernoulli’s principle, falling objects, and gyroscopes and then create a toy helicopter to illustrate these concepts.

Southeastern received thirteen applications with budget requests that totaled $151,348 (Nov 2021).
Six projects were selected for funding (details below) after all applications were reviewed, and $69,858 was awarded (Dec 2021).
Southeastern staff conducted kick-off calls with projects (Jan 2022).
Disbursed the first of three installments of award funds to projects (Feb 2022).
Community event dates posted - details and links below! (Mar 2022).
Interim project reports submitted, reviewed, approved (Mar 2020).
Disbursed the second of three installments of award funds to projects (Mar 2022).
Project work is ongoing (Apr - Nov 2022).
Project work has concluded, final reports submitted to Southeastern, third of three installments of award funds disbursed (Nov 2022).

July 29, 2022 - Deadline extended June 30, 2022: Final 10% of sub-award amount distributed
July 15, 2022 - Deadline extended June 15, 2022: All project work completed; final project report submitted
March 18, 2022: Interim project reports due
January 2022: Projects begin
Late January 2022: Project administration kick-off call with project awardees
Late December 2021: Sub-award notifications and announcements
Nov-Dec, 2021: Application review
November 29, 2021: Applications due by 5pm
November 5, 2021: Information Session - 11am-12pm