The End of November? Already?!

This year FLEW by at the Museum, and as we were compiling our annual report, we had the difficult decision of determining what the highlights of our year were. There were a LOT of highlights to choose from, which I take as a great sign. You can see what made the cut in our freshly-published Annual Report here!

Annual Report

Celebrations and festivals around this time of year across cultures focus on the idea of being thankful for the bounty at the end of the harvest season, and celebrating the gains of the last year in preparation for a new year.  

At the Museum, there's a lot to be thankful for this year.  

• A great partnership with the Humboldt Made Visitor Center, which has expanded museum hours and helped us share our mission with both tourists and our local community through longer hours and joint events.
• A fabulous team of volunteers donating their time, knowledge, and efforts to help with the never-ending lists of projects, leading tours, and working with the public to promote knowledge of local history.
• Partnerships with other non-profits and private businesses.
• The continued support of our members, visitors, and community.
• A staff team that is small but mighty.
• Our blog readers! Thank you for reading, commenting, and liking our posts!

Here are our staff’s favorite memories from this past year:

Ben, Museum Director: My favorite moment occurred during the Arts and Cultural Festival. While the public was writing personal reflections on what the redwoods mean to them, a woman got teary-eyed while telling me about how important the redwoods are for her, particularly during a difficult time in her life. The event really brought the community together, everyone I saw that day really had a positive experience, I don't remember ever seeing so many happy Eurekans at one time!
Brittany: my favorite memory of 2018 has been helping out with tabling and wheat-pasting for the Clarke's Opera Alley exhibit during the Eureka Street Art Festival and people sharing their favorite memories of the Redwoods. As well as getting to see the Native American collection more in depth and seeing something new every day.
Katie: ​ My favorite memory for this year was hosting our Redwood National and State Parks exhibit opening on July 7! I have a long history with the National Parks and putting together an exhibit and event to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Redwood National and State Parks was a fantastic experience for me. It was a really fun event and I'm happy that the exhibit was received so warmly.

Part of looking back is also looking forward- where do we want to go? What do we want to do next year? What do we want to do differently this next year? We’ve already got fun plans for next year including:

• Three main hall exhibits on early industries, quilting in Humboldt County and prohibition.
• A new exhibit space for our antique weaponry exhibit and natural history exhibits
• New exhibits in Nealis Hall on dresses and basketry designs (and more!)
• New flooring and restored historic lighting fixtures!
• Continued work on restoring the interior of our historic building
• A public art installation featuring replica cutouts of the Romano Gabriel sculptures painted by local school kids
• A new round of fascinating docent training opportunities including a Yurok Language workshop, tours of Nealis Hall focusing on basketry design and construction, and more (consider becoming a volunteer docent to take advantage of these workshops!)
• Our famous yearly Labor Day Block Party
• Participation in new Old Town traditions like the Friday Night Market and the Eureka Street Art Festival
• Members-only previews before the opening of new exhibits
• New Opera Alley, Artist Wall and Community case exhibits including displays on CERT Humboldt, Humboldt Sponsors, Mark Alder’s artwork, and local baseball.

With the end of the year, we’re launching our yearly Membership Drive with a goal of reaching 300 members-right now, we’re at 271! 

With an action-packed year ahead of us, 2019 is a great year to become a member and get in on the action. Your membership helps us keep the lights on and the doors open, put on fun events and share stories from our county’s past with kids, visitors, and our community,. As we always say: History is for Everyone!

Please consider joining us in 2019 as a member as part of this year’s membership drive- or getting a membership for a friend or family member this holiday season.  

Thanks for reading, we’ll see you at the Clarke!