From Interactive Digs to International Archaeology Day and Listening Sessions: Engaging Audiences Through the AIA’s Virtual Programs and Digital Outreach

The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) is the oldest archaeological organization in North America and one of the largest in the world. In addition to supporting archaeologists and archaeological research, the Institute is strongly committed to informing and educating the general public. Traditionally, the AIA has engaged the public through print publications and in-person activities. With the growth in popularity of the internet, however, the Institute focused on creating an extensive online presence to engage with its many audiences and to supplement and complement its traditional programs and publications. Today the Institute’s websites and social media feeds reach millions of people annually. Even before early 2020 the AIA was actively creating and hosting virtual programs for its online audience, but the pandemic forced the Institute to transition even traditionally in-person programs to virtual formats. In this chapter, the authors present a brief history of the AIA’s outreach activities and the development of its online presence. We discuss several AIA programs that are taking advantage of digital communication and explain how the pandemic forced us to change how we implemented programs like International Archaeology Day and convert the traditionally in-person National Lecture Program to a fully virtual mode. Finally, we describe how the pandemic encouraged us to create a support network for heritage educators. We conclude the chapter with some of the lessons that we learned from these actions and activities that utilized newer modes of communication for public engagement.