WHAT is ECHO Greenfield? Exploring and Creating History Ourselves is a new project funded by a Mass Humanities Digital Capabilities grant.
ECHO Greenfield provides support, resources, and space for people of all ages to be curious about the histories that surround us, both known and forgotten, and the histories that live within us. This project is generating both new understandings of histories and new histories themselves. There are ongoing hands-on activities, discussions, and support for expressing learning creatively at The LAVA Center as well as resources on the ECHOGreenfield.org website.
As it continues to grow, the website will offer not only a digital curriculum and repository of resources, but also a place for community historians to share their research interests and their scholarly and creative work.
an introduction to ECHO:
WHY ECHO Greenfield? Greenfield and the surrounding area are chock full of histories that aren’t necessarily the ones most widely known and certainly not the ones taught in school and unfolding around us every day.
ECHO Greenfield will engage people in the Connecticut River Valley as being historians – researching and collecting the stories they want to know more about, and telling their own stories.
Without these stories we are limited in our understanding of where we have come from, where we are, and where we are going.
Ultimately, we are building community by engaging each of us in seeing ourselves as an integral part of the fabric of Greenfield history and by including normally less heard voices of our diverse community. These voices will expand our knowledge of histories, adding to the texture of often one-sided stories.
We are wealthy in interesting historical facts and narratives including our strong indigenous histories, our industrial history, the abundance of rivers and rich soil and the histories of music and dance. Franklin County has been and continues to be fertile.
WHERE does this all happen?
The LAVA Center, 324 Main Street in Greenfield and online at ECHOgreenfield.org; and in the greater Greenfield area.
HOW will it happen?
Initially, there will be a series of presentations and hands-on activities that center us in thinking about our own lives in the flow of history, who has come before us, and where we want to go as individuals and as a community.
At the same time, the ECHO Greenfield website will launch with links to resources and opportunities to pose questions and share information.
HOW CAN I GET INVOLVED?
- Attend any or all of the presentations at The LAVA Center or watch online at ECHOGreenfield.org
- Ask a question on our website at ECHOGreenfield.org
- Offer your own knowledge/expertise to others on our website or at The LAVA Center
For more information, contact Project Director Lindy Whiton.
This program is funded in part by Mass Humanities, which receives support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and is an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
