The Massachusetts History Alliance is pleased to announce that Marieke Van Damme, Executive Director of History Cambridge, will give the keynote address at the 18th Annual Mass History Conference, taking place on June 5, 2023. The conference will be held at the Devens Commons Center in Devens, MA.
Marieke Van Damme has worked in museums for over twenty years, starting as a Museum Technician for the National Park Service in Sitka, Alaska. After moving to Massachusetts, she worked at Salem Maritime National Historic Site, the New England Historic Genealogical Society, and an 18th-century historic site in Peabody before joining the staff of the Bostonian Society at Boston’s iconic Old State House. Since 2015, she has been Executive Director for the Cambridge Historical Society, overseeing the organization’s rebranding from a traditional historical society to History Cambridge, a more inclusive community-driven hub for history in the city. She served as board chair for the Jamaica Plain Tuesday Club, stewards of the c. 1760 Loring Greenough House in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood, and as a New England Museum Association board member. In 2017, she co-founded GEMM (Gender Equity in Museum Movement), where she still serves on the steering committee.
She holds a BA in History from LeMoyne College, an MA in Museum Studies from the Harvard University Extension School, a Certificate in Fundraising Management from Boston University, and an MA in Arts Administration from Boston University. Her historic “spark site” was Erie Canal Village, a reconstructed 19th-century settlement in Central New York where she explored historic buildings as a child. She’s curious about your spark site! Send her a note at mvandamme@historycambridge.org.
In her upcoming keynote, Marieke will highlight some opportunities and challenges that much-needed organizational transformation can bring. Together we will ask ourselves what our community needs and reflect on how local history can be the answer.
Keep an eye out in the coming weeks as we look forward to opening registration for this year’s Mass History Conference, Taking History to Town.
The Mass History Conference is hosted by the Mass History Alliance and supported by the generous contributions of our sponsors, including:
Mass Humanities, Premier Conference Partner
State Historical Records Advisory Board (MA-SHRAB), Conference Partner
Major Sponsors
University Archives & Special Collections in the Joseph P. Healey Library, UMass Boston
Conference Supporters
UMass Boston Graduate Studies in Public History
Conference Friends
New Bedford Historical Society
University of Massachusetts Press
Conference Contributors