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08/30/2022 04:15 PMThe Henry Whitfield State Museum celebrates Welcoming Week by hosting Whitfield’s WelcomeFest on Saturday, Sept. 10 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“We’ve been working on making the museum a more welcoming and inclusive space for everyone, updating exhibits and programming. And when we heard about Welcoming Week, we knew the museum had to participate in some way,” said Museum Curator, Michelle Parrish.
Welcoming Week, launched in 2012 by Welcoming America, provides communities the opportunity to proclaim welcoming values through events and local initiatives that foster mutual understanding between immigrants and non-immigrants.
“We wanted to create a free event where both new and long-time residents of Guilford and Connecticut can come to the museum, celebrate our similarities and differences, and have some fun together enjoying entertainment and food,” Parrish said. “We want new residents to feel welcomed in their new hometown, explore some of its history, and discover all of the resources it has to offer. And we want long-time residents to show their support for newcomers, learn ways to be more welcoming, and discover things they might not have been aware of before.”
The theme for Welcoming Week is “Where We Belong” and the Museum has organized a number of programs for its Sept. 10 WelcomeFest including a children’s workshop and theatrical performance of Anansi, the Trickster Spider; Asian folktales presented by storyteller Motoko, the recipient of the 2017 National Storytelling Network’s Circle of Excellence Award; classical Indian dances performed by Layavinyasa dance company, a community resources expo, kindness rock painting, a non-perishable food drive to benefit the Guilford Food Bank, and COVID-19 vaccinations. Good and refreshments will be available for sale, and the Whitfield House, visitor center, and education buildings will be open for self-guided tours.
According to Parrish, the Museum is among a number of State institutions attempting to provide a more in depth and nuanced perspective on Colonial America.
“Today, the museum is striving to confront the facts about the site’s history in order to acknowledge past injustice, recognize how that injustice manifests in society today, and work towards an equitable future for all people. We welcome all visitors to explore the site’s complex history of nearly four centuries, and that’s why we felt it was so important for the museum to participate in celebrating Welcoming Week with this special event,” Parrish said. “We want to make sure that everyone feels welcome here. Our sense of belonging is tied to places, and we want to make sure that everyone feels they belong at the museum, in Guilford, and in Connecticut.
Parrish added, “The Whitfield House was built in 1639 as the home of Guilford’s first minister as well as a fort for the new settlement of about 350 Puritans fleeing religious persecution in England. But while Puritans were seeking religious freedom, they were often not welcoming to those with differing views or those they thought of as inferior. The Whitfield House stands as a physical reminder of the European settler colonialism of the 1600s.”
According to Parrish, for the past decade, Welcoming Week has brought neighbors together to ensure that community resources foster a feeling of inclusiveness . Welcoming America is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that promotes community understanding and inclusiveness, according to its mission statement. Learn more at welcomingamerica.org.
For more information about WelcomeFest, call 203-453- 2457.