Harvard public historian Taylor Stoermer tweeted this earlier today:
“The only path forward is hospitality-weddings, conferences, &c.-not the Historic Area or museums.” — @colonialwmsburg Pres. Reiss, today
— Taylor Stoermer (@History_Doctor) October 3, 2016
The reference here is to Mitchell Reiss, the President and CEO of Colonial Williamsburg.
Of course more context is needed here. According to Stoermer, Reiss said this in a recent employee meeting.
@alixgmartin Employee meeting this morning. Recorded by interpreter. Also that Millennials aren’t patriotic so to blame for attendance woes.
— Taylor Stoermer (@History_Doctor) October 3, 2016
Stay tuned…
Read Stoermer’s twitter feed.
Be careful of Stoemer. He has an axe to grind.
And it wasn’t exactly like his vision for the Foundation was all that great. Was part of an admin that ran it into the ground.
I’ll ask around, but I’m 95% sure that “quote” from Reiss was taken out of context.
There are a lot of old guard folks left that take it as a personal point of pride to complain about everything and obstruct all progress.
$100,000s are being poured into new interpretive plans and into the HA…..now if only they’d pay their employees what they are worth…..
(Note, I am a former employee, still live in Williamsburg, and interact with the Foundation and/or foundation employees almost daily)
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The slow decline in visitation has been on for over 30 years. CW should know this. Former CW administrator Cary Carson talked about his many years ago. Museums need revenue to support operations but always need to balance that with educational mission and effective story telling. It may be that sites like CW are too big to be effective anymore.
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Millennials aren’t patriotic? Who knew?
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