An Evening with Artifacts: What’s It Worth?
(l-r) Christine Turrentine and Martha Geehan, Stonington Historical Society, clean a model of the Hero at the Capt. Palmer House Museum. The model was made by Alan Burghardt and is on display at the museum, 40 Palmer Street.
Join members and friends of three local historical societies in an interactive program that explores why we end up collecting what we do – as individuals and as institutions – on Tuesday evening, July 21, 7:30 pm, at the Noank Historical Society’s Latham Chester Store, 108 Main Street, Noank. The program is part of a “Curator’s Camp” being held by the Stonington Historical Society, the Avery-Copp House Museum, and the Noank Historical Society, with the support of a grant by the CT Humanities Council.
Ron M. Potvin, Assistant Director and Curator, the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage, Brown University, will present a program about how we assign value to artifacts and why museums and individuals collect the things they do. Ron will lead the group in a discussion about what our collections mean to us and what they may mean to others. What we may want to collect in the future is another question to be explored.
Ron’s professional background includes preservation and interpretation of the National Historic Landmark Nightingale-Brown House (1792) in Providence. His past experience includes working with fine arts, manuscripts, exhibitions, and historic sites. He serves on the boards of directors of the New England Museum Association and the American Association of Museums Curator’s Committee, for which he is also Chair of the Program Committee. He is a member of the steering committee of the Coalition of Rhode Island Historic Sites. His research interests include historic house museums, especially interpretation and sustainability.
For more information, please contact the Noank Historical Society at 860.536.3021 or noank-hist@sbcglobal.net.
