NEWS

UPCOMING EVENTS 2010

Family Memory Making - Matching Stories to Heirlooms.

Have you inherited a special heirloom? Do you know its story? Just as every life is a story, every object has a story to tell.

Every family has its own stories about special treasures. Matching photos, letters, and personal items kept by previous generations with the stories behind them brings family history to life, establishes the personal value of objects, and promotes the value of heirlooms and collectables.

This unique service (family contract or public workshop) provides an opportunity to learn how to capture memories using reminiscence and oral history, conduct a significance assessment, preserve a treasure, and plan for the future if an heirloom has cultural significance.

July 15 or July 31

Matching Stories to Heirlooms at the ACT Writers Centre.

This special one-day workshop focuses exclusively on the use of reminiscence, oral history, and memoir writing to create an heirloom’s story. Designed especially for people who want more time to reflect on memories. Registrations Close July 9.

Click here to Register : s_suchy@primusonline.com.au


August 14

Family Memory Making Workshop at the Belconnen Arts Centre.

This workshop at the beautiful Belconnen Arts Centre provides an opportunity to learn how to capture memories using reminiscence and oral history, conduct a significance assessment, preserve a treasure, and plan for the future if an heirloom has cultural significance

Click here to register: info@belconnenartscentre.com.au or phone 02 6173 3300

RECENT PAST EVENTS

January 2010 – Exhibition - Canberra
Hard Wired for Beauty was the title of Sherene Suchy’s photo collage exhibition, which opened December 15 in The Gallery at Belconnen Community Service. An exquisite collection of 25 original hand crafted collages by Sherene, the exhibition celebrated the relationship between beauty and wellbeing. Artist Floor talks were held each Wednesday 12:00-12:30 at The Gallery. Designed as a community development event, Hard Wired for Beauty invited viewers to join and enjoy Heart Foundation Walking groups in Canberra.

November 2009 – Workshop – Canberra
The newly opened Belconnen Arts Centre hosted Family Memory Making -- a workshop designed to bring family history to life by matching heirlooms with the stories that make them unique. Participants brought family treasures and learned about oral history, significance assessments, and conservation to ensure heirlooms are enjoyed by future generations (family or museum).

August 2009 - Conference - Melbourne
Families and Museums: Partnership for Provenance was the title of the paper Dr. Suchy presented at the Talk About Town Conference hosted by the State Library of Victoria, the Melbourne Museum, and coordinated by the Institute for Public History, Monash University.

Conference Program: www.arts.monash.edu.au/public-history-institute/conferences/2009

July-December 2009 -- Oral History Project -- Canberra
The Before I Forget project was sponsored by the ACT Writer’s Centre and coordinated by Kathy Kituai. The project matched scribes and residents in the Mountain View Aged Care Centre in Canberra to create life memory books. Using reminiscence and oral history techniques, cherished memories were captured. Dr. Suchy was matched with a 99-year old woman whose memories spanned two centuries and whose secret to a long life was – Love.

April 2009 – Leadership Workshop -- USA
During an April 2009 visit to the USA, Dr. Suchy was hosted by The History Museum in Hood River Oregon to facilitate a public workshop on leadership resilience during turbulent times. There were two goals. Inspire and encourage business leaders during tough times. Position the museum as an education center for the community. The session defined resilience, as the ability to bounce back, be flexible, and retain a sense of curiosity and hopefulness about the future in the face of change challenges.

Click here to open a PDF version of the paper.


RESEARCH & WORKSHOP

Family Memory Making (Publication pending)
Based on personal experience as the executor for a family estate, Family Memory Making (working title) is a memoir – manual coaching families on the importance of capturing memories for future generations (family or museum) using oral history and reminiscence techniques.

Dr. Sherene Suchy launched the workshops History Begins at Home: Family Memory Making in 2004 through in the United States. The six-step model used in the workshops provides the framework for the book and is brought to life with insights and stories from nearly 100 interviews with professionals and families in the USA and Australia.

2008 HIGHLIGHTS

August 2008 - The Research School of Humanities at the Australian National University invited Dr. Suchy to give a lecture to graduate students in the Museum Studies program on how to develop emotional intelligence for leadership effectiveness. The lecture was based on an article by Dr. Suchy included in Museum Management and Marketing, edited by Richard Sandell and Robert Janes at Leicester University in England and published by Routledge in 2007.

July 2008 - The Business School at the University of Western Australia in Perth hosted an international conference titled Engendering Leadership.  Dr. Suchy was invited to facilitate a round-table discussion on creative cross-industry sabbaticals for leadership development and to present a paper on the same topic.

Click here for a direct link to: www.business.uwa.edu.au/research/conferences

The National Museum of Australia invited Dr. Suchy’s review of a new book titled Museum Marketing: Competing in the Global Marketplace (© 2007 Ruth Rentschler and Anne-Marie Hede). The review was in the March 2008 edition of reCollections, a journal published by the National Museum of Australia.

Click here for direct link to www.recollections.nma.gov.au


CONTRIBUTIONS TO PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

Leading with Passion: Change Management in the 21st-Century Museum

“Leading with Passion is a wonderfully insightful look at what is required to be the successful leader of an art museum--and by extension, a successful manager in general. Dr. Suchy has collected an enormous amount of complex detail, which she analyzes with elegance and precision. Even if you were never interested in museum management, you will find this an inspiring and informative human document"
                                       Professor Mihaly CsikszentmihalyI, Author of Flow: The Psychology of  Optimal Experience

“Dr. Suchy weaves a Renaissance tapestry of flow, social capital, emotional intelligence, and entrepreneurism in helping us see and understand museum leadership. Beyond museum directors and trustees, these insights are applicable to other not-for-profits, service, and public sector organisations, as well as most companies.”
                                       Richard E. Boyatzis, Professor and Chair of Organisational Behaviour at the Weatherhead
                                                    School  of Management, Case Western Reserve University.

Order from AltaMira Press:  Click here to order Leading with Passion.

Museum Philosophy for the 21st Century

What underlying philosophy and mission should museums pursue in the first half of the twenty-first century? In Museum Philosophy for the 21st Century, twenty-four authors use the lenses of a variety of disciplines to answer this essential question. In Chapter 5, Dr. Sherene Suchy explores Connection, Recollection, and Museums Missions with a personal analysis on the relationship between families and museums as sites for healing.

Order from AltaMira Press:  Click here to order Museum Philosophy for the 21st Century

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