Sunday Speaker Series: Connecting Communities Conference

The Connecting Communities Conference series is set to conclude on Sunday, June 23, at 2 p.m. with a final conversation between the Museum of South Texas History’s Program and Events Officer René Ballesteros and Chittenango Landing Canal Boat Museum’s Program Coordinator Derrick Pratt.

For this Sunday Speaker Series presentation, Ballesteros and Pratt will conduct a cross-country video call to discuss the topic of economic identity in South Texas and New York state, respectively. Audience members in Texas and New York will also be encouraged to participate in a post-presentation Q&A session.

The idea was inspired after Pratt, from the Chittenango Landing Canal Boat Museum, attended the 2017 American Association for State and Local History’s annual meeting in Austin, Texas. It was there that staff from the Museum of South Texas History met and became friends with Pratt and spent the conference learning and discussing topics, strategies and issues relevant to museums today.

“I believe that if we took a closer look at our museums, and the stories they tell, we would see that there are strong common threads that we each tell in our own special ways,” Pratt said. “And these common threads have the potential to open up very important and engaging discussions in history.”

Sunday Speaker Series is included in the fee for regular museum admission. FRIENDS of MOSTHistory are admitted free as a benefit of FRIENDship and must present their FRIENDship card at the Admissions Desk.

This program is made possible with generous support from the Carmen C. Guerra Endowment. Mrs. Guerra was deeply committed to supporting educational opportunities in the Rio Grande Valley. This named endowment was created at the museum by her family to honor her memory and to continue her commitment to providing opportunities for education to the community.