When Brittany Newman was first approached about taking over as executive director for the Golden Museum and Archives in 2019, she had no idea she would be tasked with preserving history as it happened when the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded months later.

At the time, she was running the summer camp at the museum and was covering for long-time curator Colleen Palumbo at the fall fair. Newman had been kicking around the museum for 10 years at that point, having first come on board in the summer of 2009 as Kids Camp coordinator for her first real job out of university.

After a year of training alongside Palumbo throughout 2020, the curator stepped into retirement and Newman assumed her new position in April 2021.

91裸聊视频淲e do our best to tell as much as many of the stories as possible here because Golden is hugely diverse and we have a crazy amount of history here that people wouldn91裸聊视频檛 imagine that we did,91裸聊视频� said Newman.

91裸聊视频淲e learn a lot from the past and the more we kind of explore it, the more insight we have into the way that people are and why they are, why they are where they are, and why Golden is what it is.91裸聊视频�

Palumbo says at the time of her retirement that she felt the museum was being left in good hands with her successor.

The role of the executive director is many-faceted, from curating family trees, helping tourists looking to learn more about the community they91裸聊视频檙e visiting, to working with the town when the ice flows jam up on the river to help determine the best way to mitigate the problem.

Currently, Newman is working closely with the group trying to preserve the Swiss Village, something she says has helped show the importance of the role of the museum in the community.

She91裸聊视频檚 also working to preserve the impact of COVID-19 in Golden in the digital age for use in a future exhibit 10, 20 or maybe even 50 years down the line.

So far, she91裸聊视频檚 collected old Rotary hand sanitizer bottles, masks, Facebook posts and Physician of Golden updates.

91裸聊视频淯ntil you91裸聊视频檙e really in a position where you91裸聊视频檙e going to lose something you don91裸聊视频檛 realize how important community history actually is,91裸聊视频� she said.

91裸聊视频淭hinking about how in 20 years and 50 years, how are people going to display this?

91裸聊视频淗ow are they going to share this because we91裸聊视频檙e living through something that is actually going to make it into a history book. It91裸聊视频檚 been a very surreal experience.91裸聊视频�

She says working with the archives, she sees the importance of the museum and preservation, citing a journal entry from almost a century ago that reveals old weather patterns and how the environment in the Golden area has changed.

As for where she sees her position taking her, she says she wants to see the museum continue to foster itself as a community space for everybody to come and learn or share a story, something that started when Palumbo was still the executive director.

Newman says that it reflects a larger shift in the industry since she first came on board in 2009.

91裸聊视频淲e used to be there simply to be experts in history,91裸聊视频� she explained.

91裸聊视频淣ow, we91裸聊视频檙e shifting to a place to provide safe civic dialogue.

91裸聊视频淲e91裸聊视频檝e gone from being a museum that has different eras and different rooms to being a museum that actually tells stories that includes our, our community and our storytelling.91裸聊视频�

She says another shift she91裸聊视频檚 noticed is the world of history opening up to being more inclusive and accepting of everyone, regardless of gender, sexual identity, or any other form of identity.

While fieldwork and work on the research level such as professors and studies tend to be more male-dominated historically, Newman says roles like hers have always tended to skew more toward females, but over the last decade she91裸聊视频檚 seen more balance.

However, being a woman in history doesn91裸聊视频檛 come without its battles.

91裸聊视频淚t91裸聊视频檚 just like a woman in any sort of business, it91裸聊视频檚 always a struggle when you91裸聊视频檙e in a room full of especially older generation men to make sure that your voice is being heard and you91裸聊视频檙e not being talked over,91裸聊视频� she said.

91裸聊视频淚 think a lot of women struggle with that, regardless of the position they91裸聊视频檙e in, but as we continue to educate, we can see it changing in society a little bit at a time.91裸聊视频�