PROMOTING COLLABORATION AND INNOVATION
in PUBLIC HUMANITIES

Posts Tagged ‘collaboration’

Pubcomm 2011 – Building Public History Collaboration

Nearly 60 public history students, professionals, and faculty attended an inaugural Public History Community Forum organized to build community and collaboration in the Philadelphia region.  Initiated by MARCH and cosponsored by the Temple University Center for Public History, the event on April 29 offered tours and informal roundtable discussions about recent projects, career issues, and opportunities for collaboration. Among the student participants were contingents from Temple, Rutgers-Camden, Villanova, University of the Arts, and West Chester University.

Amid the fellowship, it became clear that aspiring professionals shared a common concern about their career prospects in the current economic climate.  Well-prepared by graduate programs, many are finding their opportunities limited to unpaid internships, limited-term grant projects, or part-time positions without benefits.  While these may be viewed as reasonable entry-level stepping stones into the field, the next steps are difficult to envision at a time of tight budgets for many potential employers.

Participants in the forum offered suggestions for future collaboration to share information and better prepare new professionals for the realities of public history work today.  In an evaluation survey completed after the event, participants advocated highly the creation of an online bulletin board for sharing information about projects and needs.  In addition, many supported a proposal to create training seminars on new media skills, grant-writing, and entrepreneurship, to better prepare the next generation of public historians.

MARCH thanks all who helped by staging or participating in this event — watch for further news about our emerging collaboration for public history in and around Philadelphia.

Nueva York (1613–1945): Reflections on a Ground-Breaking Exhibit and Partnership

Interior of exhibition theater created by artist Antonio Martorell, showing "costumed" seats and screen. In our featured article, the curator of Nueva York reflects on the opportunities and challenges of this pioneering collaboration between the New-York Historical Society and El Museo. Photo by Giovanni Rodríguez.


By Marci Reaven
One of the least acknowledged yet defining aspects of New York City’s history is its centuries-long connection to the Spanish-speaking world. Although Spaniards and Spanish Americans only began coming to New York and other eastern cities  after the American Revolution, economic and political connections and conflicts date to the seventeenth century.  In the nineteenth century, the South American trade helped turn the New York-Brooklyn metropolis into one of the world’s most prosperous urban centers. Cárdenas, Cuba, became known as an “American city” for its large North American population, and Cuban wags referred to New York as a neighborhood of Havana. The connections only thickened in later years.

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