On Labor Day Weekend, we were able to throw open our gates for one special weekend and open our campus for an outdoors Museum experience. Over three days, we welcomed hundreds of locals for free as they explored our campus and new outside exhibits, shopped in our Museum Store pop-up, and enjoyed a beautiful weekend.
This weekend could not have been possible without our Exhibits and Facilities teams. Since this past winter, Exhibit teams have been working on three new exhibits – Women at the Helm, Maritime History on Display, and Women’s Suffrage in the Champlain Valley (a partnership traveling exhibit with Champlain Valley National Heritage Partnership). The pandemic might have changed some of our plans on making these exhibits open and accessible to the public, but it didn’t make them impossible! In July, we opened a new Women at the Helm digital exhibit, presenting the exhibit in an interactive map format with deep dives and more details on featured stories. And, over the course of the summer, we got to work producing and installing new outside exhibits. A special thanks to Dale Henry for creating custom steel posts with ground stakes and our Director of Facilities Chris Hale for installing exhibits:
With outdoor exhibits installed and a better sense of the nature of the virus, there was a new opportunity to open up the Museum’s outside spaces for free for one special weekend. By opening our gates so visitors could explore outside exhibits and shop safely in an outdoors Museum Store pop-up, we could finally feel like a museum again (and show off our new logo!).
More importantly, this weekend could not have been possible without those who came to enjoy! Over three days, neighbors, friends, Museum members, families, Board members, and more came by. We are so grateful to everyone who decided to visit, all while following current state guidance to wear a mask and keep safely distanced. As we enter the fall and winter, we are looking forward to finding new ways to engage audiences safely, in person and online. If you would like to make a suggestion, please feel free to contact us at info@lcmm.org. In the meantime, enjoy these photos from our Great Outdoors Museum Weekend!
