How do you leave an indelible mark on visitors to your site? In what ways can you create memorable experiences that increase visitor interaction with the stories you tell? How can you become part of the fabric of your communities? Have no fear, we are here! Join us for the third and final program in our Revolution NJ Public History Workshop Series: Captivating Stories and Experiences featuring Gretchen Sorin, Director, Cooperstown Graduate Program, and Meredith Sorin-Horsford, Executive Director, Dyckman Farmhouse Museum.

This free event will be in-person with registration capped at 40 people. Lunch and refreshments will be provided.

About the Presenters

Gretchen Sullivan Sorin is Director and Distinguished Service Professor at the Cooperstown Graduate Program, a training program for museum curators, educators, and directors that is part of the State University of New York College at Oneonta. She is also a Fellow of the New York Academy of historians.

Dr. Sorin holds a B.A. degree from Rutgers University in American Studies, an M.A. in Museum Studies from the Cooperstown Graduate Program, and a Ph.D. from the University at Albany in American history. Dr. Sorin has more than thirty years of experience in the museum profession working for more than 250 museums as a museum exhibition curator and education, programming, and interpretive planning and strategic planning consultant. She has served as a guest curator for many exhibitions. Major exhibitions include, In the Spirit of Martin: The Living Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service; Through the Eyes of Others: African Americans and Identity in American Art; the nationally acclaimed traveling exhibition, Bridges and Boundaries: African Americans and American Jews for the Jewish Museum in New York; the award-winning Wilderness Cure: Tuberculosis and the Adirondacks for the Adirondack Museum, It All Happened at the Audubon, A History of the Audubon Ballroom for Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and Dvorak: Culture and Society in the 19th Century, for the Bard College Center for Curatorial Studies and Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center.

Active in the museum community Dr. Sorin has served on the boards or governing councils of organizations including Shelburne Farms, The New York Folklore Society, The American Association for State and Local History, the 1772 Foundation, the New York State Parks Commission, The Directors’ Council of the Historic House Trust, The American Association for State and Local History, The Seward House Foundation and the American Association of Museums Committees on Museum Professional Training and Nominations. She is currently the President of the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums, and a member of The New York State Regents Advisory Board. She is a member of the New York State Board For Historic Preservation and the New York State Museum Regents’ Advisory Council.

Dr. Sorin is the recipient of the Katherine Coffey Award from the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums, the Thurgood Marshall Unity Award from the Oneonta NAACP, the Philip Jones National Ephemera Society Fellowship Research Award, the State University of New York Chancellor’s Research Award, and the Chancellor’s Award for Research and Creative Activities. In 2006 she was named to the rank of Distinguished Service professor. SUNY distinguished ranks are conferred for sustained effort in the application of intellectual skills drawing from the candidate’s scholarly research interests to issues of public concern. In 2018 she was named to the list of distinguished alumni by the State University of New York College at Oneonta. In 2021 she received the Susan Sutton Smith Award for academic excellence from SUNY Oneonta. For the past 25 years, Sorin has worked to broaden representation in the museum field for underrepresented groups.

Dr. Sorin writes and lectures frequently on museum practice, diversity and inclusion, and African American history. Her books include Touring Historic Harlem, Four Walks in Northern Manhattan with architectural historian Andrew Dolkart, In the Spirit of Martin: The Living Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, Through the Eyes of Others: African Americans and Identity in American Art and Case Studies in Cultural Entrepreneurship: How to Create Relevant and Sustainable Institutions. She is the author of Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights published by W. W. Norton/Liveright in 2020. The book was a finalist for the NAACP’s Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work. Sorin is also co-writer and senior historian with Steeplechase Films and filmmaker Ric Burns on the documentary film, Driving While Black: Race, Space and Mobility that aired nationwide on PBS in October 2020 and February 2021.

Meredith Sorin Horsford has served as the Executive Director of the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum since 2015, where she leads her team toward creative and inclusive programming and interpretation with a community-focused perspective. In 2019, she spearheaded an extensive research project on the enslaved and free Black men and women that were instrumental in the prosperity of the Dyckman Farm. Her goal at the museum is to connect the past with the present through programs such as a reoccurring race lecture series, contemporary art installations highlighting the Black experience in America, and urban agricultural programs.

Horsford has worked as a museum and nonprofit professional for 18 years, working previously as the Executive Director of the Gracie Mansion Conservancy, New York City’s official mayoral residence, and prior to that, Deputy Director of the Historic House Trust of New York City.

She holds a Master of Arts in Geography from the University of Delaware, a Bachelor of Arts in Geography from the State University of New York College at Geneseo, and a certificate in Grantmaking and Foundations from New York University. Horsford also serves as the President of the Board of Directors for the Greater Hudson Heritage Network.

Registration

Time: 9:00 AM — 3:00 PM EDT

Free!