International Museum Day on Maryland’s Eastern Shore

Salisbury, Md. – It is International Museum Day and museums on Maryland’s Eastern Shore are encouraging folks to celebrate local history.

International Museum Day began in 1977 by the International Council of Museums to celebrate cultural exchange and the development of mutual understanding and peace. President and CEO of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in Talbot County Kristin Greenaway says museums are an essential way for people to understand not just their past, but maybe hints at the future.

“We would encourage everybody who has a local museum to go and visit it,” she said. “Museums, particularly maritime museums, cultural heritage museums — we are storytellers and we talk about place and we invite you, as a member of the public, to come and see where your place has come from and where it’s moving to, because we’re not just the keepers of the past, we’re a hint to the future.”

Raye-Valion Gillette is the curator and folklife specialist at the Museum of Eastern Shore Culture in Salisbury and she said she had been going to museums at a very young age and they help one widen their view of the world.

“I think that that’s such an important frame of reference to kind of get out of your own bubble and see how other people live and see how those life experiences can translate into artwork or writing or performance,” she said.

Gillette said museums can be great places for people to “dip their toes” in things they’re interested in, but also where they can learn about things they would have never known about had they not visited.

“For us specifically, we really want to be like a community hub,” she said. “We want to be a place where communities can share their traditions or learn about other traditions.”