Welcome to the Kingston Association of Museums, Art Galleries & Historic Sites!
We are a not-for-profit professional network and collaborative resource hub supporting the Kingston region's cultural heritage sector.
The Kingston Association of Museums, Art Galleries and Historic Sites, otherwise known as KAM, first emerged 40 years ago as a community-initiated, professional support network to promote public awareness and increase engagement across Kingston’s cultural heritage sites through collective promotional and programming initiatives. KAM is also engaged in supporting its membership through the dissemination of information, sector best practices, and professional development opportunities.
Our members range from federally owned sites with professional staff, to sites which are member-owned and volunteer operated. Some operate seasonally; others are open year round. Many have specialist collections that tell the stories and histories of our communities from local, regional and national perspectives. From its inception, KAM was driven by the ideal that by working collaboratively, despite differences in size, mandates and resources, cultural heritage sites and organizations could quite simply; do better together, improving practice and strengthening their connections within and across communities.
2020 marks our 40th anniversary and we have much to celebrate. As the professional network and resource hub within Kingston’s cultural heritage landscape, KAM is committed to facilitating a resilient, innovative and responsive cultural heritage sector within the Kingston and area community.
We recognize that our work, and the work of our members, takes place on Indigenous territories across Eastern Ontario.
The ability to have influence in two distinct cultures is a rare gift. It is a skill prized by diplomats today, but would it have been appreciated 250 years ago if the person engaged in negotiation and diplomacy was an Indigenous woman? I happily discovered that, in the case of Molly Brant, the answer is “yes”. After the American Revolutionary War, the British government recognized her war-...