DHPSNY antiracism programming in 2025 is focused on exploring opportunities and strategies for collecting archival materials for the future of New York State. Our guiding question: What can we as practitioners in the field — both paid and volunteer — do to build and steward collections for the communities of tomorrow?

Ensuring we are telling an inclusive history requires us to thoroughly understand the communities we serve in order to discern what is missing and what frameworks of trust and communication must be developed. This interactive program invites participants to question and identify whose stories are missing from their collections, discern which of their contemporary communities are visible and which are invisible, and build in mechanisms to keep vulnerable communities safe while still collecting materials that tell their stories.