Lake Placid Olympic Museum Staff Attends International General Assembly in Colorado
The Lake Placid Olympic Museum (LPOM) is a great example of how a museum can do more than display interesting antiquities and instead, use history to bring greater meaning to people’s lives. Far more than simply the world’s second largest collection of Winter Olympic artifacts, LPOM is a source of inspiration, beauty, truth, answers, and remarkable real life stories of major cultural significance.
Its Director, Courtney Bastian, and Collections Manager, Julia Herman, are the leaders of a team on a mission to keep everything fresh and alive and ensure that each visit there is a dynamic experience that cannot be forgotten.
As part of that quest, Courtney and Julia recently traveled to the 2025 Olympic Museum Network General Assembly hosted by the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum (USOPM) in Colorado. There, they got to study in person the only other Olympic Museum in the U.S. while also exploring new ideas, delving into the USOPM archives, and connecting with members of the International Olympic Committee and fellow Olympic Museum leaders from around the world.
The event was a celebration of the Olympic spirit – something for which the Village of Lake Placid is known internationally – and a learning experience that Courtney and Julia will use to create exciting new LPOM experiences for many. Their vision is to discover new ways to further engage not only the museum’s visitors but also Olympic Region residents and students across New York State.
As a member of the global Olympic Museums Network, LPOM has access to numerous highly valuable artifacts outside its collections. The network also provides opportunities to improve quality and share costs. With LPOM’s enhanced network and all the knowledge and potential new strategies gleaned from the General Assembly, LPOM staff stand to greatly enhance exhibits, experiences, and educational programs.
Among the event’s many learning opportunities Courtney and Julia participated in was a presentation by the team at the Athens Museum discussing their educational programming and how they’re leveraging their collections. “Something we’re focusing more on now is how we engage students at public schools,” says Courtney. “The Athens presentation and others provided inspiring opportunities for us to learn how museums are achieving their educational goals. We returned with great ideas and are re-energized and motivated to make a difference.”
Having recently been awarded grant funding for a new interactive kiosk, Courtney and Julia also learned about an advanced, new software platform available through the Olympic Museums Network to enhance museum educational programming. Currently, LPOM has a wall display listing all the local athletes the region sent to the Winter Games in the last century. This is important because Lake Placid’s development programs have sent an athlete to every Winter Games since they began in 1924. Says Courtney, “We’re planning to replace that basic list of local Olympians on our wall with an interactive digital kiosk that will be accessible even for those with hearing and vision disabilities. Instead of a static list, every visitor will be able to click any name to gain access to more detailed information about each athlete.”
With so many museum leaders from around the world and opportunities to learn, LPOM staff found the General Assembly event rife with new ways to improve displays and methods of presenting content to visitors. As just one example, Courtney cites her excitement around new accessibility tools. “There are many different ways people learn, which is why we’ve been working on being more inclusive. At this gathering, we learned in depth about some very beneficial accessibility tools, such as audio tours, that can help boost our impact and experience. Seeing other museums’ approaches gives us new perspectives and important ways we can implement changes here in Lake Placid.”
With different responsibilities in their work, Courtney and Julia found that although they often had similar new ideas from the presentations, they also had differing takeaways. “The highlight of the trip,” says Courtney, “was meeting 2020 Tokyo Olympian Samantha Schultz Achterberg, a modern pentathlete who truly embodies the Olympic values of friendship, excellence, and respect. This and other elements of the gathering in Colorado were powerful reminders of how the Olympic spirit unites us all.”
“The highlight of the trip for me,” says Julia, “was visiting the U.S. Olympic Committee archives. We arranged a tour before even leaving for Colorado, and I found many insights for my work by learning about their storage techniques, equipment, and tools. Since they have similar challenges as we do, it was enormously beneficial to see how they’re handling their archives and how they’re using their available spaces.”
Always full of their own intrinsic motivation to inspire the community and visitors, Courtney and Julia are as excited as ever to continue enhancing LPOM programming and exhibits in big and small ways. The General Assembly gathering helped them connect with other Olympic Museum leaders from around the world and reaffirm their personal commitments to excellence by creating inspiring experiences for everyone who visits. Their dedication to furthering the ongoing development of museum programs is continually bolstered by their devotion to promoting not only their museum but also the Olympic spirit and broader Olympic Movement within our region and beyond. While the objects displayed so often make a museum valuable, Courtney and Julia know well that the artifacts are just the beginning of the experience at the Lake Placid Olympic Museum.