Implementation of a traveling exhibition, website, curriculum, and public programs exploring the history of the scrap industry in America.
The Jewish Museum of Maryland (JMM) is developing Scrap Yard: Innovators of Recycling, a temporary, traveling exhibit that will allow visitors to explore the evolution of the American scrap industry over 250 years through the stories of people who created it – immigrants, their descendants and their successors. In addition to the 2,000-sq ft, experiential exhibit exploring scrap recycling through the lenses of history, sociology and technology, JMM intends to publish a companion book and free interpretive brochure, create a website, plan public programs, collect and curate select oral histories, and develop educational curricula. The exhibit will feature historical objects, oral histories, texts, images, multimedia, and interactives. Resources will be drawn from JMM’s collections, the archives of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), and a variety of other sources. Scrap Yard opens at JMM in 2019 and begins a national tour in 2020.
BHS is requesting NEH funds to support its newest exhibition, Sick: Seven Diseases That Changed Brooklyn, which, along with complementary education programs, public programs, and a project website, aims to reveal to diverse audiences that conceptions of illness and health are a manifestation of not just biology, but beliefs, institutions, and identity. Sick will use Brooklyn’s rich history to show how concepts of illness and wellness have transformed over 400 years with a focus on seven different diseases. Topics range from smallpox and Native Americans in the seventeenth century; to devastating nineteenth-century outbreaks of cholera in the growing city of Brooklyn; to pharmaceutical innovations that would grow into global corporations; to local doctors and nurses, activists, and communities who fought disease and redefined caregiving; to the experiences of a diverse group of borough residents and their families during the earliest days of HIV/AIDS; and more.
Planning for a permanent exhibition examining the role of horse-drawn vehicles in American life in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
A World Before Cars represents the latest phase of a major redesign of the LIM’s carriage museum, which contains one of the largest and finest holdings of horse-drawn vehicles and related transportation artifacts in the country. Utilizing the expertise of skilled consultants and the highly-regarded H. Lee Skolnick Architecture and Design Partnership, the LIM will plan an interpretive gallery composed of hands-on activity areas that explore the experiences of carriage riding/driving, the integral role of horses in 19th-century America, and the ways in which carriage design innovations informed and influenced automobile design. From a ride simulation exercise to interactive computer kiosks and a comparative display of carriage and automobile parts, this new gallery will be designed to engage a variety of different visitor age and experience levels, providing an immersive entry into the world of carriages, and the unexpected ways in which they connect to our modern lives.
The New Bedford Whaling Museum (NBWM) will develop a traveling exhibition titled A Spectacle in Motion: The Grand Panorama of a Whaling Voyage ‘Round the World. This exhibition features one of the longest and most distinguished paintings in the United States, the 1,275’ Grand Panorama of a Whaling Voyage ‘Round the World, an authentic and arresting depiction of a 19th-century whaling voyage. Painted by two New Bedford artists, the Panorama travelled the United States between the 1850s and 1870s as a moving picture show. It has not been shown in its entirety or as it was originally intended since the 1870s. The Panorama contains broad content related to history, industry, and geography, and conveys themes of globalization, cultural diversity, popular literature, and visual culture. The traveling exhibition will debut in New Bedford, MA in 2018, and then travel to Mystic, CT in late 2018. The project also includes the development of digital content and educational programs.
Implementation of a traveling exhibition on the evolution of hierarchy in prehistoric southeastern Europe.
The Field Museum requests support from the National Endowment for the Humanities for the implementation of a traveling exhibition—tentatively titled First Kings of Europe: The Emergence of Hierarchy in the Prehistoric Balkans—about the evolution of hierarchy in prehistoric southeastern Europe. Featuring some of the most compelling archaeological finds from the Neolithic period, Copper Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age, First Kings will tell the story of how small, autonomous, farming communities of the Neolithic evolved into centralized, hierarchical, and bureaucratic states during the Iron Age, approximately 8,000-2,500 years ago.
NYBG seeks an Implementation Grant for the exhibition, Roberto Burle Marx: Modern Nature of Brazil (June 8-September 29, 2019), the exhibition’s travel to two additional venues, and a two-year public humanities position. Burle Marx is one of the most significant Brazilian artists of the 20th century and his work has had a lasting impact on landscape design around the world. This project will explore the deep connections between Burle Marx’s fine art and landscape architecture practice and his commitment to the celebration and preservation of native Brazilian plants. It will be the first show to combine a large-scale horticultural tribute to Burle Marx’s Brazilian modernist landscape design work with a curated exhibition showcasing his significant fine art works. The exhibition will also include smaller exhibitions on Brazilian plants and the Sitio Burle Marx. It will be complemented by self-guided tours, a mobile guide, and public and children’s education programs.
Production of an augmented reality app for the Cahokia Mounds historic site and a complementary website.
This project is to produce an augmented reality application for Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. This experience will enable visitors to see structures, people, and other features of this ancient site through the lens of their smartphone or tablet. There will be extra audio and vision opportunities loaded to the experience as well as a complementary website. The website will include curriculum for school use. Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site is a UNESCO World Heritage and US National Historic Landmark. This project will greatly enhance the visitor's experience and bring awareness of the site.
The goal of exhibition is to share the history of the Spiro culture from its humble beginnings to its rise as one of the premier cultural sites in all of North America. The Spiro people, and their Mississippian peers, are nearly forgotten in the pages of North American history, yet they created one of the most exceptional societies in all of the Americas. This exhibition explores the archaeological and historical data connecting the Spiro site to other communities throughout North and Central America, discusses the Spiroan community and religious activities, and highlights the enduring legacy of Native Americans today who are descended from Mississippian cultural groups. This 200-object exhibition will include a publication, symposium, and website, all of which was developed in collaboration with the Caddo Nation, the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, and scholars from over a dozen universities and museums from across the United States.
There is a vein of democratic idealism in the work of science museums. It is less about political democracy than epistemological democracy. As a one-time museum educator and a researcher who studies science museums, I have always thought of it in terms of an unspoken two-part motto: “see for yourself–know for yourself.” Although this strain of idealism has remained constant throughout the history of science museums, it has been interpreted differently in different eras, responding (in part) to the social upheavals of the day. In the late 1960s, for example, a new generation of self-described
Science learning occurs throughout people's lives, inside and outside of school, in formal, informal, and nonformal settings. While museums have long played a role in science education, learning in this and other informal settings has not been studied nor understood as deeply as in formal settings (i.e., schools and classrooms). This position paper, written by learning researchers in a science museum engaged in equity and access work, notes that while the researchers consider the ethics of their work regularly and deeply, little formal guidance exists for the ethical challenges they routinely
From 2018 to 2020, the Emerging Research on Identity, Representation & Inclusion in Museums project team set out to document graduate-level research on identity in the museum field, and support professionals’ ongoing research and publishing on these topics. Researchers at Knology synthesized over 90 graduate student theses about identity and museums from 2000 to 2018. In parallel, we interviewed a sample of the authors whose work appeared in the literature review, to understand how identity research has played a role in their careers. To support new and ongoing identity research, we hosted a
Diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion (DEAI) have become central concerns for museums. Across the field, leaders are asking—with increasing urgency—how museums can diversify their visitors, staff, and boards; create welcoming and inclusive environments and workplaces; and ensure that museum offerings reflect a broad range of interests, experiences, and needs.
Museums have approached DEAI efforts in different ways and at different levels, from developing special exhibits and events for specific audiences to offering staff diversity training to board development. Despite more than