In the spring of 2020, as the global pandemic forced us into lockdown and new ways of running programs, HNY staff members including Director of Programs Michael Washburn corresponded with Pamela Conley, a Deaf professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf, about how best to accommodate her participation in our Zoom-based online Community Conversations. It took a few tries, some of them frantic, but it worked quite well in the end to use Zoom’s ASL services, and ultimately, Pam’s perspective in the group discussions was extremely valuable and welcomed. We invited Pam to write […]
Preserving LGBT Historic Sites
How do we preserve a sense of place when its context is constantly changing? We continue our Stonewall 50 blog series by discussing the importance of preserving place-based LBGTQ history. HNY interviewed Ken Lustbader, one of the Project Directors of the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project, who discusses how digital preservation can be an effective tool for passing stories intergenerationally, particularly when some of the most important historical spaces were illegal, transient, or have since been renovated. Don’t miss the rest of the series, join our newsletter. HNY: Let’s start with Stonewall. Stonewall has arguably become as much a symbol […]
Virtual Reality Immerses Visitors at Albany History Fair 2018
Participatory experiences top the list of expectations for today’s visitors to historic house museums and other cultural institutions, which presents both challenges and opportunities for the field. One new avenue for audience engagement is the incorporation of Virtual Reality (VR) technology. Humanities New York spoke with Deborah Emmons-Andarawis, Acting Director of Historic Cherry Hill, and Krysta Dennis and Michael Lounello from Siena College’s Creative Arts Department to discuss the debut of VR at the Albany History Fair in May 2018. Historic Cherry Hill and the college’s Creative Arts Department laid the groundwork for this VR experiment through last year’s celebration […]
