Social Bridging at Museums

"At museums, we mostly bond with the friends and family with whom we attend. Social bridging is harder to come by, especially as society becomes more striated. Bridging is essential to building strong, safe, diverse communities. There are few places where bridging happens naturally. If we can make our museum a place that intentionally encourages and inspires bridging, we will make a powerful impact on our whole community." Nina Simon on her blog. 


This social bridging that Nina talks about reflects what our theme of "different cultures...prairie neighbours'' at our museum is trying to accomplish. We need to find the time in our volunteer life to expand it in our exhibits and programs. 

We have been encouraging residents and others to share photos, family trees and stories with us. This has resulted in some very interesting results.
I have been scanning photos this week. Some are very small (under 2 inches) but scanning at high resolutions allows enlargements and some wonderful discoveries that were not noticed in the original photo.  A face of a resident long since departed is brought up with clarity - it's such a wonderful way to keep their memory alive.
These photos inevitably add detail and, dare I say, 'sparkle' to the stories of the Cut Knife Community.
It is these discoveries that help motivate me to continue with the establishment and growth of our archives.
I  still have much to learn about digital storage practices to ensure this modern storage lasts for the next generations.