Get Involved in your Neighborhood!

How You Can Help!

​Become a member of the Irvington Historical Society

• Your memberships and donations fund our daily operations, preserve our materials and keep the museum free to the public.  
• Family Memberships are just $25 annually.
  
• ​Lifetime memberships (individual) are $1,000.
  

Volunteer at the Bona

• Our member volunteers assist with a wide variety of duties. from scanning materials for the archives, maintaining the building, curating exhibits, building displays, editing and updating the web and social media, planning events, and sharing information with visitors. Have fun volunteering at the Bona while you learn more about our community. 
• Email the Bona and tell us how you would like to get involved!
  

​​Become a Bona Sponsor

Become a sponsor to support the Bona's events and long-term needs.

• ​Programming
  
  • It costs over $2,000 a month to keep the Bona open and operating, and to keep it free to the public. Your sponsorship supports our building improvements and community programming.  
  • The cost of exhibits at the Bona can cost as little as $50 for printing or food for a reception to a couple of hundred dollars for speaker's fees, or several thousand dollars to repair a WWI poster or to clean and repair a major painting, such as Dorothy Morlan’s Irvington in December.
    

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• Events
  
  • Sponsor are always needed for the Bona's annual events, such as the Ice Cream Social and the Holiday Fair, and for the opening receptions for the 10-12 exhibits offered annually.

• Endowments
  
  • Your donation would play a major role in the future of our organization by allowing us to establish an endowment.  
    
  • ​Naming rights for select rooms in the Bona are available. 
    

Join the Irvington Historical Society

      What a year it has been! Thanks to each of our volunteers, visitors, and donors who contributed to our 2020 exhibits and activities. This year, we provided you with more virtual programming, and we were pleased with the response as neighbors, both near and far, joined us to learn more about Irvington history and art. Thousands of individuals have viewed Paul Diebold's strolls as he shared his knowledge of Irvington architecture, places, and traditions on Facebook live and on our website. We  appreciated your patience as other events needed to be postponed or cancelled due to changing guidelines and requirements.
     We were still able to provide new exhibits such as Twenty Portraits, Power Hats & Irvington Women, Irvington Commercial Properties, Rita Spalding: Saveurs de France, Presenting Irvington Artists (through Dec. 19), and Securing the Vote: Women's Suffrage in Indiana (through Dec. 6). The permanent exhibits, International Harvester, Angels of West Baden & Ghouls of Irvington, continued to attract new and returning visitors. Online presentations included discussions of The Year We Left Home, Something's Brewing, Robert Hunt's Art, and the "Undefeatable" Grace Julian Clarke. 
     We were glad to see you at the Ice Cream Socially Distanced event as you continued to support the historical society and keep our traditions going, even when adaptations were necessary. Others cleaned out closets while they were home and brought us some lovely donations which we will incorporate into future exhibits.

Irvington Historical Society Board

2020 Year In Review