Matthews Living History Farm Museum sponsors or co-sponsors several events each year. Most are open to the public and admission is free. Below is a listing of the annual events. Open House Event: April 6 2024, Come on out to the museum and meet our manager and see what we are up to this year. Are you interested in helping at the Museum? This is a good time to talk to our Manager and see how you can help. Museum opens at 10:00 am and closes at 3:00 pm. Museum Board members will be at this event, so stop and say hello. They would love to tell you how you can help our little museum. Some of our volunteers will be setup Demonstrating their skills and will also be selling what they make. Will be a fun filled day and we hope to see you. Stop on out, to see the little gem we are hiding in Grayson County and step into the past Scheduled One Hour Tours This is a scheduled event, so please email, call or message to get on the list for this tour. Tours will start at 12:00Pm and go until 1:00PM. On these days, you will be invited to join some of our volunteers as they teach you about some of the skills needed to live the every day to day life in the 1900s, learn about the animals here at the museum or get a chance to step back in time in our cabin. Each one of these days will be a different type of tour, so please contact the museum to see what is going on the day you are interested in! Spaces are limited, so please get a hold of us to be set up for this tour. 1-276-773-3080 matthewsfarm@gmail.com June 22. 2024 A Walk in Their Boots, History Event May 25th, 2024 This is a new thing that we have added to the museum’s schedule. Come on out on Saturday May 25th and step into history. This event will cover some World history events and also American History Events. There will be soldier encampments, re enactors in dress, vehicles and much more. There will be vendors at this event and the event is free to the public. We do hope you join in this new event. Storytime and Games June 5,12,19,26 July 10,17,24, 31 ( last one for the Season) Last year this was a great event and this year we plan to grow on this! This is on a Wednesday now. Then almost every Wednesday, after we will have this reading event until July 31, 2024, this will be our last one for the year. Come on out and meet our Museum Manager and our volunteers, as we dress in period clothing and read to your children from books written in the late 19th Century and Early 20th Century. This is an event for all ages who love stories! Please feel free to bring a picnic lunch and enjoy the Museum. Reading starts at 11:00 am and the event goes until right around 12:00 am. We will start adding in games and other learning opportunities for your little ones. Best part it is a free event for the Summer. Hope to see you soon. Music Jam and Potluck May 21 and 28 June 4,11,18,25 July 9,23 August 13,27 September 3, 17( last one for the season) This event here at the Museum, was started in 2019 and we do hope this becomes a great way to meet your neighbors, maybe make a new friend. This year, ( 2024) our first Jam will be in May and our last one being in September, 2024. Unless our Musicians want to do more Tuesdays together, so watch our calendar to see. We are inviting Musicians, people who love music, people who would love to learn how to play, people who dance and sing, to join us at the Museum at 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. This is a great way to learn about what makes this area so special, plus hear beautiful music. If you want bring a potluck snack or meal to share with everyone. We are providing disposable dishes, cups and silverware this year due to the Pandemic. We want to recreate the feeling of a community social. This is a free event and a fun way to get out and see the Museum. We do hope to see you soon. Need to Know Series We would like to invite you to these amazing Saturday classes. These classes will be mostly free, so contact the museum to see if there will be a cost. Each year we will pick a subject to cover and once a month we will have this free class. These class will cover homesteading practices, old and new, Appalachian folk art, history of the Appalachian mountains and where we live, to many more subjects. These events are free to the public, but we always take donations to keep this a free museum. This year classes will be on Gardening and Forging for these Saturdays. First class starts at 11:00am and ends at noon. We will break for lunch and the second class will start at 1:00pm and end at 2:00pm. The classes this year are also sponsored by the Grayson County Library and their seed library, also the Master Gardeners, April ( 20th ), 11:00AM to 2:00PM ( garden prep and forging plants) May (18 ), 11:00AM to 2:00PM ( planting and forging ) June (22) 11:00AM to 2:00PM ( weeding day and the importance) August ( 17 ) 11:00AM to 2:00PM ( harvesting/seeds and forging plants) September ( 21) 11:00AM to 2:00PM (preserving your food and forging plants) Timeline Living History Event August, 24, 2024 This event will demonstrate life in a Civil War, WWII and Vietnam era encampments, including period costumes and living quarters, parades, weapons demonstrations, drills, skirmishes, music and cooking. Visitors are welcome to actively learn by strolling through the camp, viewing military drills and demonstrations and engaging in conversations with the reenactors. This is an amazing opportunity to learn about the different eras military and also become involved in a great hobby. There is no fee to see the reenactors and visit. We will be posting as it gets closer times of demonstrations. There will also be local artisans and crafters, selling their products that they make. This is a great way to support local small businesses in our area. Arts Council Quilt Show: Stories of the Stitch September 7, 2024 The sight of colorful quilts flying through the pastures of the Farm Museum is an experience not soon forgotten. Area quilters bring their finest efforts for display along with the stories that are part of the quilts. Visitors enjoy the stories and the results of hours of labor that the quilts represent. Prizes are given and many of the quilts are offered for sale. Vendors with fiber related products are available for shoppers as are a variety of fiber demonstrations and activities. Music and food and other entertainment are available at this event as well. This is a free event to come to, so come on out and see the beautiful quilts and read the stories behind them. This event runs from 10:00am to 3:00pm Heritage Day September 7, 2024 A variety of demonstrators set up around the grounds, showing our visitors how their skills were used on the farm – many sell the items they are making. Visitors are invited to try their hand at several of the activities. Gardens are on display. Music is incorporated into the experience by live, local musicians. Food, drinks, bathrooms, and a shaded Pavilion are also provided. There are now many types of animals at the Museum, visit with the ducks, chickens, pigs, cows, sheep and oxen! This day offers so much to see, do and hear. We are also for the 3rd year, a part of the Ag and Art Tour of Grayson County, so we hope you will swing on out and enjoy some of the artist from Grayson County and take a tour of our wonderful Farm. This event will be rain or shine! This event runs from 10:00am to 3:00pm Scare Out Hunger Scare, Food Drive Event October 22-26th Second Annual Scare Out Hunger, Scarecrow competition! We are asking Small businesses, non profits, organizations, and anyone who wants to, to come out to the museum and drop off a scarecrow. From October 22th through October 26th, contact the museum on a good time to drop off your scarecrow, or just come during operational hours ( 10:00AM to 4:00PM). Also bring a box for canned items!!! If you want you can start collecting food cans at your business, school, or organization. This was such a success last year. We were able to drop off at 3 locations, 10 boxes each, of canned and boxed goods. We are asking the community to drop off canned or boxed food items at the museum on October 28th, all day!!! If you want to collect food before hand you can and bring it to the museum on the 28th. We just want to see the barn lot filled with inventive Scarecrows! Help the Museum Scare Out Hunger in our area by participating in this event of visiting the museum on the 26th, during the day, to drop off some items. All food will be split between, Grayson County and Galax food banks. Any questions please contact the museum. Pumpkin Folk Festival ( 2 day event) October 24, 2024 ( Pumpkin Carving Night) Come join us for a night of carving pumpkins. If you do not have a pumpkin please come on out and get one from us. The event starts at 5:00PM and goes until 7:00PM. We hope to light the front porch of our workshops with lighted Jack O’ Lanterns on October 26th! This is the start of our Autumn Folk Festival weekend. October 26, 2024 Autumn Folk Festival and Light the Porch Event We have turned our old Pumpkin night festival into an all-day event! This event will start at 10:00AM and go until 3:00pm. The day will be filled with German, Scottish, Irish, heritage traditions and stories. We will also be having a special guest from the Grayson County Historical Society, coming out to talk about the Scot/Irish and German, people of Grayson County. There will be vendors in the vendor lot selling their handmade items too. Musicians will be on the woodworking shop porch playing Irish tunes and some Old-time Music. If you didn’t have time to carve a pumpkin well this is your chance to add a Jack O’ Lantern to our Light the Porch Event. There will be demonstrators of heritage skills all around the museum. Just a fun filled day. There will be food and drink available throughout the day. At Night……. Starting at 5:00PM going through 7:00PM, is the Light the Porch Event! We would love for your children to come in their Halloween costumes to join in the fun. Please come out and bring a carved pumpkin to the event!! We plan on lighting up the porches, the cabin and the blacksmith shop with over 100 pumpkins! We will light the pumpkins that night for people to see and vote on. Some prizes will be awarded, so please leave you information under your pumpkin (name, address, phone# and age). There will be games in the Pavilion. Movies will be in the old cabin. Of course, we will have candy and even popcorn!!! We do hope to see there Appalachian Home for the Holidays November 9, 2024 This is a brand new twist to our Demonstration Saturday events. We can’t wait to bring an old fashioned Thanksgiving /Christmas to the public, with our demonstrators. This promises to be a special event for the family. We will be adding traditions and tails of old to this event. Talking about folktales and how these gatherings brought families together in the Appalachian mountains. There will be vendors and demonstrators at this event. Event starts at 11:00Am and goes to 3:00PM. We just confirmed that Santa will be here to say hello!! This is our last event for the season and will also be the last day we will be open for the season. We do hope to see everyone before we shut the gates for the year. More information about this event to come during the year.