 A New Agora for New York: Museums as Spaces for Democracy Project Update | | | A Note from the Project Fellow: Hello MANY Members!
A common thread linking the Voices and Votes exhibition and the response exhibitions at our partner museums are the stories of everyday people across the country and in your communities who are just "doing history." These stories highlight how people like us – neighbors, friends, and community members – advocate, march, vote, and overall work towards positive change that can result in wide-spread and lasting effects on our country. The "Field Guide for the Semiquincentennial" by AASLH has identified five themes to help museums prepare for their 250th commemorations: Unfinished Revolutions, Power of Place, We the People, American Experiment, and Doing History. There are many ways museums can encourage their communities to actively engage in democracy. Preservation Long Island partnered with a local fiber arts business to make a Signature Piece Quilt to bring together the community of Cold Spring Harbor in a shared project that would be added to Preservation Long Island's collection. This quilt was patterned after a quilt already in their collection which provided an opportunity for the community members to feel a direct connection with the past. 2024 is a significant year for American history and is particularly relevant for an exhibition about American Democracy. AAM published a helpful article in 2020 called “Get Out the Vote” that discussed the role museums play in their communities and encouraged active civic participation, including voter registration, forums for civic dialogue, and fighting misinformation and disenfranchisement. Voices and Votes host museums like Sackets Harbor Battlefield State Historic Site and Preservation Long Island partnered with the League of Women Voters to set up voter registration tables in their exhibition halls, the National Women’s Hall of Fame invited the public to submit art about Democracy for their Co-Crafting Democracy Redux exhibition, and Robert H. Jackson Center will be hosting Dr. Karen Korematsu to speak about civic participation at their site for Constitution Day (Sept 17th). We encourage you to consider implementing similar programs at your museum. We are very excited to see how "A New Agora for New York" progresses, and we hope to see you at one of our partner museums as they host the Voices and Votes exhibition! Thanks!
Ren Lee Agora Project Fellow
| | | Where the Exhibition is Currently | | | | | The National Women's Hall of Fame | “A New Agora for New York” closed at the National Women’s Hall of Fame last Saturday, August 24. The run at the Hall was a resounding success with over 1800 guests visiting since they opened July 12. The Hall featured three response exhibitions: The Rollercoaster for Women’s Rights, Equality, and Freedom, Co-Crafting Democracy Redux: Fiber Arts and Activism, and La Cicatrice along with the Smithsonian exhibition, Voices and Votes: Democracy in America. They used these exhibitions together as a launching point to explore, reflect on, and tell the stories of women’s roles in the evolution of American Democracy. The opening of the exhibitions also marked an important milestone in the National Women’s Hall of Fame’s history.“A New Agora for New York” served as the inaugural exhibition in the Hall’s second-floor exhibition space, marking the completion of the latest phase of renovations at the historic knitting mill. We are so honored to have the National Women’s Hall of Fame join this cohort of participating museums and are excited to hear what they accomplish next! See below for some highlights from their exhibition. | | | | | | | | | The Smithsonian exhibition, Voices and Votes: Democracy in America at the National Women's Hall of Fame.
| | | | Terry Taney, Jennifer Gabriel, Marianne O'Connor, and Kate Bennett cut the ribbon at the Opening Reception at the National Women's Hall of Fame | | | Exhibition Highlights What's your favorite object? | | | | | Mia Tetrault stands by her favorite object, a cloth banner called "Best Isn't Enough" by Sarah Marsom from the exhibition, Co-Crafting Democracy Redux. | While at the opening reception at the National Women’s Hall of Fame, MANY staff took the opportunity to speak with the people who work behind the scenes to put the exhibitions together. We asked, Summer Research Fellow, Mia Tetrault, “What is your favorite object?” “My favorite object is “Best Isn’t Enough” By Sarah Marsom. I love that piece because I think it speaks a lot to what is happening today and how women don’t get enough representation in political office. I think that we need more women voices in these important fields to make decisions. Especially with Roe v. Wade being overturned. I think we need more female empowerment and to be in positions of power, like when Ruth Bader Ginsberg was elected as a Supreme Court Justice, that was an incredible thing to happen. She inspired so many women to pursue law. I think we need more women like her to inspire future women to take positions in power.” Mia is a senior at Hobart and William Smith Colleges who worked with Summer Research Fellow, Greta Paasch and Professor Betty Bayer to curate the response exhibition, The Rollercoaster for Women's Rights, Equality, and Freedom. | | | Program Highlight: Scholar Lecture with Ashley Hopkins-Benton | | | Senior Historian and Curator at the New York State Museum and Agora Project Scholar, Ashley Hopkins-Benton speaking at her lecture, "Museums, Democracy, and the Importance of Diverse Collections." | Senior Historian and Curator at the New York State Museum and Agora Project Scholar, Ashley Hopkins-Benton gave a presentation at the National Women’s Hall of Fame called “Museums, Democracy, and the Importance of Diverse Collections.” Her presentation spoke to her experience at the New York State Museum and the work she does interpreting objects that are in the NYSM collection from different lenses. She spoke about her experiences creating exhibitions on topics that had not been previously collected for like the suffrage movement and the LGBTQ+ movement and how she found creative ways to reinterpret items already in the collection. She also spoke about how the increase in diverse exhibitions led to an increase in collection donations by members of underrepresented communities because they went to those new exhibitions and realized that their objects had not only sentimental value but historical significance and would be appreciated by the New York State Museum. She emphasized the importance of making connections and building relationships with underrepresented communities both through outreach and internal hiring. She shared a story of finding an object that had an image of a “woman with bun” on it according to the label, but when she looked at it she immediately recognized that woman was Susan B. Anthony. Through her presentations she encouraged her audiences to consider “what is actually in our collection and what stories can they tell?” | | | | | | | | | Naturalization Certificate of William Robert Keay, 1909 | The Community story highlight comes from Sackets Harbor Battlefield State Historic Site’s Site Manager, Connie Barone who shares the story of her great grandfather William Robert Keay’s immigration and rocky path to citizenship. William, who immigrated from Scotland in 1888 was finally issued his naturalization certificate (pictured above) in 1909 after a few notable obstacles. Listen to her tell the story of her great grandfather’s journey to citizenship. Community Stories produced in partnership with OurStoryBridge. | | | | | | | | | Where the Exhibition is Going Next | | | | | The Robert H. Jackson Center (RHJC) in Jamestown is the next site for “A New Agora for New York,” where the Smithsonian exhibition, Voices and Votes: Democracy in America and their response exhibition The Story of Our Participation will tell the story of and amplify the role New York State and Chautauqua county took in the development of American democracy as the nation approaches its semiquincentennial. “Voices and Votes is a wonderful way to celebrate Jamestown’s rich history and the RHJC’s mission while creating an opportunity to work with our partners to bring a Smithsonian exhibit to the area,” said RHJC President Kristan McMahon. “This opportunity perfectly aligns with our mission to educate our communities on issues of justice and civic participation, and the RHJC is the perfect venue to host this exhibit. Jamestown was the home of the American Voting Machine Company, and we’re looking forward to working with the Fenton History RHJC, Chautauqua County Historical Society, Chautauqua Institution, and other community partners to tell the story of our region as a seat of the democratic process.” The exhibition will be at the Robert H. Jackson Center from September 6 through October 18. During that time, the RHJC will host programs like a Constitution Day presentation by Dr. Karen Korematsu, who will speak about her father’s landmark US Supreme Court Case, Korematsu v. United States concerning the constitutionality of Japanese Internment and the importance of civic participation, a Community Conversation led by Humanities New York Director of Grant-Making Joseph Murphy, and a teacher training workshop led by New York State Museum Educator James Jenkins. We look forward to the opening of the exhibitions at the Robert H. Jackson Center and hope to see you there!
| | | | | | | | | “A New Agora for New York” debuted its tour across the state of New York in Cold Spring Harbor at Preservation Long Island (PLI), a regional not-for-profit organization that maintains and interprets historic sites and collections pertaining to Long Island’s history. PLI’s response exhibition, “Democracy on Long Island” focused on the strength of voices and how they can shape American Democracy. They featured writings from enslaved author, Jupiter Hammon as well as a photo series used for activism of the Shinnecock people to protect their sacred burial sites.
| | | | | What is "A New Agora for New York: Museums as Spaces for Democracy" | | | “A New Agora for New York: Museums as Spaces for Democracy” is a humanities discussion program series produced in partnership with Humanities New York (HNY). The series will use the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum on Main Street Exhibition Voices and Votes: Democracy in America as a launching point to support the work of twelve museums and their communities to explore, reflect on, and tell the story of their role in the evolution of American Democracy and envision the future of our nation as we approach the semiquincentennial. The project will help twelve museums build their capacity to engage with their communities with access to: Consulting and Advising Scholars, A Consulting and Advising Project Fellow, New York State Museum education and curatorial staff, AASLH’s Vital Resources program, training by HNY staff in leading Community Conversations, and gathering oral histories. In addition to the Voices and Votes exhibition, museums will produce a response exhibition that pulls from their museum's collection that tells the unique story of their community's engagement with democracy. They will also host a series of programs that include a Community Conversation led by HNY staff, a teacher workshop designed to help teachers incorporate museum content into their classrooms, and a scholar lecture featuring one of the project's advising scholars. Throughout the life of this project museums are also collecting stories of democracy with the help of OurStoryBridge. | | | | | Other Resources for America's 250th Commemoration | | | Voices and Votes is a Museum on Main Street (MoMS) exhibition developed by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. It’s based on an exhibition by the National Museum of American History. It has been made possible in New York State by the Museum Association of New York. Support for MoMS in New York State has been provided by the United States Congress and the William G. Pomeroy Foundation. “A New Agora for New York: Museums as Spaces for Democracy” humanities discussion programs are made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. About the Museum Association of New York The Museum Association of New York is the only statewide museum service organization with more than 780 member museums, historical societies, zoos, botanical gardens, and aquariums. MANY helps shape a better future for museums and museum professionals by uplifting best practices and building organizational capacity through advocacy, training, and networking opportunities. Visit www.nysmuseums.org and follow MANY on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn @nysmuseums About the National Endowment for the Humanities Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at: www.neh.gov. About the William G. Pomeroy Foundation The William G. Pomeroy Foundation® is committed to supporting the celebration and preservation of community history; and working to improve the probability of finding appropriate donor matches or other life-saving treatments for blood cancer patients. Established by Trustee Bill Pomeroy in 2005 to bring together his two greatest passions, the Pomeroy Foundation is a private, philanthropic organization located in Syracuse, N.Y. As the nation’s leading funder of historic roadside markers, the Pomeroy Foundation has awarded more than 2,100 grants for markers and bronze plaques in 48 states and Washington, D.C. To learn more about the Pomeroy Foundation, visit wgpfoundation.org. About Humanities New York Using dialogue, reflection, and critical thinking, Humanities New York applies the humanities to strengthen democratic society. Established in 1975 as the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Humanities New York is a private 501(c)(3) organization that may receive federal, state, and private funding. To learn more about Humanities New York, visit humanitiesny.org. | | | | | | |
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