Camlann Medieval Association
is dedicated to offering the public powerful personal experiences of medieval history, including multiple learning and performing arts opportunities, built upon thorough research of rural communities in fourteenth-century England, to provide a deeper understanding of the relationship between historical events and society today.
We aim to become a leading community-based research and resource center for late medieval culture in the Pacific Northwest and to foster a vibrant connection between past and present.
CAMLANN IS HIRING
Join the Camlann team!
Camlann Medieval Village is seeking to hire two enthusiastic individuals to join our community of villagers, cooks, artisans, and storytellers. Whether you’re a skilled cook, a craftsperson, a performer, or simply passionate about history and community, there’s a place for you at Camlann.
Kitchen manager & feast steward – Oversee operations in the Bors Hede and during medieval feasts, including scheduling, menu planning, and team coordination. Click here for job description
As-needed cook (Bors Hede) – Prepare traditional medieval meals and assist the kitchen team during feasts and special events. Click here for job description
Board of Directors
Lauren Poyer, PhD
Executive Director
lpoyer @ camlann.org
Kimber Leiker
Co-Director
kimber.leiker @ camlann.org
‘Iwalani Christian
President
dyer, archer
Kim McCoy
Vice President, IT
reeve
Lynette Fricke
Secretary-Treasurer
Francis Classe
Board Member,
shoemaker
Tim Petosky
Board Member,
blacksmith
Rory Linden
Board Member,
bowyer, blacksmith
David Morse
Board Member
Mary Jo Reid
Board Member,
potter
Join us for our next quarterly Board of Directors meeting on April 19, 2026 @ 2 PM
Collaborators
Camlann Medieval Association regularly collaborates with artists, performers, and craftspeople from around the Pacific Northwest, featured below. To meet our interpreters in Camlann Medieval Village, see our ‘Volunteers’ page.
Master Payne
Magic
Shulamit Kleinerman &
Seattle Historical Arts for Kids
Music
Ashley Swanlund
Merchant
Jacob Breedlove
Music, Puppetry
Our values
Authenticity & Accountability
Camlann Medieval Association recognizes our role and responsibility in shaping public perception of the lived experiences of peoples in the late medieval period, specifically in late fourteenth-century England. As a living history museum, Camlann Medieval Village offers a interpreter-first historical recreation that necessarily engages in facets of medieval life that are to varying degrees historically attested, historically inferred, and/or historically inspired. Even with the best archaeological and textual sources, no interpretation will capture the full reality of medieval peoples’ experiences.
Our responsibility to educate the public about the realities of medieval life demands a commitment to communicate to what degree of historical attestation, inference, or inspiration different aspects of our Village Life and educational programming reflect. Our interpreters always strive for historical authenticity in their interpretation, but also operate in a spirit of intellectual accountability, that is, a willingness to acknowledge the theoretical and practical limitations of approaching an “authentic” medieval experience.
Engagement & Interactivity
We curate exhibits, events, and activities that encourage community connections based on a shared interest in medieval material culture and intangible heritage. To this end, Camlann Medieval Association acknowledges its place on a spectrum of institutions public and private, formal and informal, that engage deeply in a form of participatory medievalism (Kline 2016; Pugh & Weisl 2013). We therefore offer medieval cultural programming that meets guests at a variety of knowledge, interest, and ability levels.
Camlann Medieval Association aims for every guest encounter with a Village interpreter to be interactive. This is the ethos of a living history museum: guests engage with a living person who is embodying a historical persona, not a textbook or documentary. And guests are, at every opportunity, invited to work with and apply medieval tools and methods under the direct supervision of our experienced interpreters. In this way we hope to meet and challenge guests’ expectations not only about medieval people, but about themselves.
Curiosity
There is always more to learn about the medieval period. Deep study of another time and place opens one to “other ways of worldmaking… [of] knowing, doing, [and] being” (Dinshaw 2012: 170).
Camlann Medieval Association believes that historical reenactment and reconstruction can produce new knowledge about the past. We are always working to execute experimental archaeology projects related to rural life in medieval England, including but not limited to fourteenth-century construction, food production and preparation, fibre arts, and blacksmithing, as well as interpretive performances of medieval music and storytelling traditions, legal procedure, religious ritual, and daily social practices.
Join our Mailing List
- Keep up-to-date with events and workshops at the Village
- Buy tickets to upcoming feasts and festivals
- Learn about ongoing experimental archaeology projects
