From the Director's Desk

While it has been a mild winter outside of the Hart Cluett Museum, it has been anything but on the inside.  The staff has been running on all cylinders preparing for the opening of the museum for the year! Amanda has been working feverishly on our gala and writing some exciting grants for our future! It is exciting for to me to see collections that Samantha and Elliot have resurrected from storage for our exhibitions. Museum’s traditionally exhibit about 15% of their holdings at any one time, so thematic exhibits like We the People: Voting and Democracy in Rensselaer County offers the chance to bring out these gems that highlight our political history across the county. 

Along with the exhibition, Anna has been revamping our school programs to meet the current NYS standards and is creating some interesting adult and multi-generational programs for this year.  Keep checking our web pages and calendar to see what is happening!

We understand that not everyone can visit our galleries or use the research library during our regular hours.   Beginning April 18th, our research library and galleries will be open on Thursday nights till 8PM.  These hours coincide with the Rensselaer County Clerk’s office which has open hours until 7PM and the Troy Public Library till 7:45. So if you need to do research on your house, do some genealogy or browse through our amazing photograph and map collection, plan your visit for a Thursday evening!  You will most likely see me here, wearing my historian hat! 

And don’t forget to sign up for our Gala honoring Jack and Diana Waite on March 21st at Franklin Plaza.  We have some surprises planned for that evening and it truly will be a wonderful kickoff to our program year at the museum. As always, you can always reach me at ksheehan@hartcluett.org. 

Happy Spring! 

Kathryn T Sheehan
Executive Director/Rensselaer County & Troy City Historian