What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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museum continues to partner with local organizations to be a part of that growth." Use lessons we learned from our covid closure and reopening to create a better, more inclusive, more responsive museum. "While the museum was fairly active online before covid, we've learned — as have museums nationwide — that presenting virtual programs, events, and even exhibits makes them more accessible and opens up a broader audience to, in our case, Arkansas Ozark history," Lord says. "Post-covid, we'll definitely look forward to seeing people come back to the museum for onsite programs, events and exhibits, but many more people will be able to find and use our services online, so those will no doubt continue to grow. We've also learned that visitors miss those things they can't access now due to covid, such as the hands- on activities that normally inhabit our exhibit hall and visits inside our historic buildings. Those things were permanent before and will be post- covid, but it's validating to know they play a big part in the visitor experience here." Reflecting on the year just past, Lord says "there wasn't much in 2020 that didn't get accomplished, albeit often in a different format. Exhibits still opened but also went online. Almost all scheduled programs took place, but virtually rather than onsite. Big activities — including the annual Ozark Quilt Fair, our summer history camps, the annual Arkansas Symbols Day, the new and now-to-be-annual Native American Days — all happened virtually and attracted huge audiences. "Our only real disappointments were in not being able to host visitors, speakers, our 11 history-related groups and school classes. [But] those big activities I just spoke of were way better than we had hoped for. For our two week-long history camps, we can accommodate up to about 40 campers. Online we were able to host 110, including two campers on the autism spectrum who couldn't have participated onsite. Our first stab at Native American Days, for which we expected perhaps 500 onsite students, attracted 2,110 virtual participants, including some from outside the Northwest Arkansas area. Additionally, the resources created for that event are now an online and accessible and have received excellent reviews by teachers and historians. "I don't believe there's a person alive who can predict today when it will be safe enough to resume in-person activities at the museum," she concludes. "But we know that day will come, and we'll flip the switch to make it happen, just as we did last March when it was going the other way. We'll be ready for that return, but the experience in presenting all-virtual activities and the lessons learned during covid mean that many more activities that were once only in-person will also be more accessible online." LIKE our Facebook page before 11:59 pm this Tuesday, Feb. 9 to be entered to win: 2 FREE 1-Hour Passes to Branson Big Air Trampoline Park Go to: facebook.com/BestBranson Like The Best of Branson on Facebook for a chance to win some Really Great Prizes! (Passes good Monday-Thursday) This week's Prize: New contest each week! facebook.com/BestBranson 40 WHAT'S UP! FEBRUARY 7-13, 2021 PRESIDENT Brent A. Powers EDITOR Becca Martin-Brown 479-872-5054 bmartin@nwadg.com Twitter: NWAbecca ASSOCIATE EDITOR Jocelyn Murphy 479-872-5176 jmurphy@nwadg.com Twitter: NWAJocelyn DESIGNER Deb Harvell 479-872-5029 REPORTER Lara Hightower 479-365-2913 lhightower@nwadg.com WHAT'S What's Up! is a publication of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. ON THE COVER This handmade valentine, circa 1900, is among those on show in "Valentines: Flattery and Insults," open now at the Rogers Historical Museum. The flattering cards in the exhibit are of the traditional variety, such as this one with lace work and elabo- rate embossing. (Courtesy Photo/RHM) Shiloh Continued From Page 10