March 29, 2024

New Carpenter Museum Director Hits the Ground Running

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The Carpenter Museum has a new director and she wants to get the word out on what the museum has to offer and make it more accessible to the community.  The new director is Elyssa Tardif. She replaces Barbara Spencer who retired this summer after many years.

Tardif grew up in North Attleboro and studied English undergraduate at Bates College in Maine. She went on to earn her Master’s and PhD from Purdue University.  Tardif always had a passion for the past. “What I was really passionate about was people’s stories and the incredible objects and spaces that help to tell those stories,” Tardif said.

Tardif, who started the job in mid-July, previously worked as Director of Education and Public Programs at the Rhode Island Historical Society for five years. The Carpenter Museum job is part-time and that was a positive aspect for Tardif.  “I found the job (at the RI Historical Society) really rewarding, but it didn’t allow you the time to do other projects, including teaching,” Tardif said.

In addition to running the Museum, Tardif will be teaching a course on Early American Women’s History at Brown University. Tardif says she’s excited about the new position. “Rehoboth is beautiful. It’s amazing the effort that’s gone into preserving history here. There’s a lot of history here,” Tardif said.

One of her first goals, she says, is learning where the museum fits in the community. “I’m interested in getting a sense of who knows about the museum and how the museum can be a better neighbor and better serve the community,” Tardif said.
She hopes that more schools, both in Rehoboth and in surrounding towns, will bring students to the museum for field trips. She wants students to be able to “come to this space and be immersed in the past.” “My first priority is to seek grants to set up focus groups with teachers to learn how they liked the field trip experience, how we can improve it and how we can make the collections more accessible to the classroom,” Tardif explained.

Third grade students from Rehoboth visit the museum every year, as well as a history class from Dighton-Rehoboth High School, but she wants to bring in more young people. “The great thing is we have pieces tied to Rehoboth, but they are relevant to anyone outside Rehoboth studying the period,” Tardif said.

The Museum has many artifacts from the colonial period, and the building, built in 1976, includes a reproduction of a 17th century kitchen with an open-hearth fireplace. They also have diaries of men who served in wars going back to the 17th century. “Anyone studying New England history may be interested,” Tardif said. She’d also like to take some of the collections out into the community, creating traveling trunks with hands-on items and demonstrations and possibly a digital collection.

Tardif has already made a connection with one community group that promises to be a positive relationship for both sides.
The Dighton Inter-Tribal Indian Council will soon be holding its meetings at the Museum. When Tardif heard the Council was in need of a new location, she reached out to them and formed a new partnership with the group. The Council lost its spot in the Grange in Dighton after 32 years due to space issues. The Council will meet monthly at the Museum and council members will run a native craft workshop on most Sunday afternoons when the Museum is open. The workshops are expected to start sometime in November.

Tardif is looking forward to developing next year’s programming theme at the museum, called “Food Ways.” Upcoming activities and programs will focus on what people eat and stories and traditions around meals and food. “We’ll be getting memories from the community, family recipes, favorite places to eat and more – the general flavor of Rehoboth,” Tardif said.

The Museum has put together a short survey to learn more about the community’s needs. The link to the survey is http://bit.ly/2cS3ylC. For more information on the Carpenter Museum, visit www.carpentermuseum.org.

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