Waterbury Historical Society has been accepted to participate in Vermont Historical Society's inaugural cohort for a grant-funded training program, Activating 21st Century Local History. The program's objectives are to advance volunteer and staff skills in determining collection priorities and energizing the community in engaging with local history.
Learning in active collaboration
The 2025 cohort, which includes Brookfield Historical Society, Sharon Historical Society, Thetford Historical Society, and the Bixby Memorial Library (Vergennes) in addition to Waterbury, will learn in greater depth about the "active collections" approach to preserving local history. Active collections strategies directly address the unique financial, environmental, and operational challenges facing all types and sizes of history museums.
Collections are the touchstones
With a focus on how collections actively advance the society's mission, the year-long training program will allow WHS to collaborate with four other organizations in workshops and on collections-based projects to strengthen our mission-critical work of making local history accessible, engaging, and meaningful to our community members and visitors alike.
We're excited to share our progress in the next issue of Preservation News!