Birthday Bash Celebrates City: Museum finds new mix of live and virtual events

There's a big bash in the planning stages at the Rogers Historical Museum, and it will include the entire community. The city of Rogers turns 140 on June 6 -- it was incorporated on June 6, 1881 -- and the museum will kick off the celebration with Founder's Day on June 5.

"There currently are plans for a mix of virtual and in-person events throughout the year," says Serena Barnett, director of the museum. "Whether or not the in-person events will be able to take place will be determined on the status of the pandemic as we approach the dates of those events."

Barnett and her staff had both disappointments and successes in 2020, as did most local arts organizations.

"Before closing to covid in March, we were making plans to host our annual Family Day event in June, which is a day filled with food, games, crafts and other fun activities at the museum," Barnett recalls. "We had to make the difficult decision to cancel for the safety of our community, staff and volunteers."

But "we are very pleased that our virtual Ghost Walks tour in October had a much greater viewer participation for one evening than we had envisioned," she adds.

"In one night, we had 60% of the overall attendance we've had from presenting the tour in-person across several days in previous years. Due to this success, we're definitely considering offering this event as both in-person and virtual when we have it again in October 2022."

With everything dependent on the control of covid-19, Barnett isn't looking as far down the road as she might in an ordinary year but is instead focusing on more immediate events and activities. Currently on show at the museum are "Reflections of the Black Experience," curated by Kinya Christian and on show through Feb. 27, and "Valentines: Flattery and Insults," on show through March 27. Upcoming programming includes "History of Valentines" on Feb. 10 on the RHM Facebook page and website and also online, "Native American History: Mano and Metate," set for March 10, which "discusses how the Native Americans that once lived in our region used this stone tool equivalent to a modern mortar and pestle to grind foods such as corn, acorns and seeds into flour," Barnett says, adding, "March is Archaeology Month."

"Many of our in-classroom programs are now virtual," she says of another 2020 achievement. "Teachers and homeschool parents can view our program menu and register at rogershistoricalmuseum.org/resources-for-educators.html.

"Post-covid, we have decided that along with again presenting in-classroom programs in-person, we will continue offering many of our classroom programs virtually, as well," she adds. "This will give teachers more flexibility to access our programming in ways that will best fit their students' needs and schedules."

What hasn't changed is the museum's mission.

"We will continue to preserve and share our history," says Barnett. "Our primary goal is to ensure the safety of our community, so the only thing that may have changed as a result of the pandemic is that we are using different ways to achieve this."

To that end, plans for 2021 also include a new museum app, which Barnett says will "allow us to better share our history with our community all in one digital-friendly place."

"Some of the features of the app that we plan to offer are self-guided tours of both the museum and around town, history scavenger hunts, and English-Spanish exhibit translations," she elaborates. "The app also has the benefit of being a covid-friendly, no-touch alternative for gallery interactive activities since visitors will be able to download it for free onto their personal devices.

"We are continuing to plan as if all will be back to 'normal'; however, we are also considering plans for similar covid-friendly alternatives wherever we can."

“Reflections of the Black Experience” remains on show at the Rogers Historical Museum until Feb. 24. (Courtesy Photo/RHM)