Episode 108: Valerie Paley on museum truths

~ Kathleen Collins

This episode takes us into the worlds of both academia and museums and reveals how the two come together in a unique program at CUNY. The conversation is between Valerie Paley, senior vice president and the Sue Ann Weinberg Director of the Patricia D. Klingenstein Library at The New York Historical, and Elaina Battista-Parsons, a current student in the Master of Arts in Museum Studies program. Valerie developed the program within the CUNY School of Professional Studies, and it launched in 2019. The two discuss the origins and mission of the program, the importance of cultural spaces, narratives, interpretation and education, innovative modalities, the “funding dance,” expanding and diversifying museum audiences, and breaking down barriers to make museum contents as accessible as possible. They also talk about showcasing women’s history, the HBO drama “The Gilded Age” and as, Elaina refers to what she is learning in the program, “secret museum truths.”

Valerie Paley is senior vice president and the Sue Ann Weinberg Director of the Patricia D. Klingenstein Library at The New York Historical. Formerly the chief historian at the institution, she is founding director of its Center for Women’s History, the first of its kind in the United States within the walls of a major museum. A graduate of Vassar College, Paley holds an MA in American Studies and a PhD in History from Columbia University, where she serves on the adjunct faculty at the Columbia Center for American Studies. Her work at New York Historical encompasses a critical range of curatorial, scholarly, and administrative responsibilities, including the development of a new joint MA Program in Museum Studies with the CUNY School of Professional Studies, which launched in Fall 2019. Paley is the 2020 recipient of the American Historical Association’s Herbert Feis Award, recognizing distinguished contributions to the field of public history. 

Elaina Battista-Parsons wears many hats! You can learn more about her here and follow her on Instagram. Stay around for a mini-conversation between the two of us at the end to hear us enthuse about small presses and women and writers supporting one another.

Discussed/related/bonus:

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