Road Reports

Minnesota Gives Free Trips to "Journey Stories"

It’s a traveling exhibit for a reason.  The Smithsonian’s mission “for the increase and diffusion of knowledge” shouldn’t stop at the borders of D.C.  With Museum on Main Street, we take Smithsonian treasures throughout the country because not everyone can make the pilgrimage here.  And we’re grateful for the humanities councils and venues who give us a home on the road.  And some, like Carver Country Historical Society in Minnesota, have taken educational accessibility one step farther.

As a host of “Journey Stories,” Carver County wanted to make sure students especially could see the show, regardless of battered school funds.  So Executive Director Wendy Biorn applied for a grant with Target Corporation, headquartered in the Twin Cities.  The full $2,000 award for educational services provided transportation to the show for eleven school groups—the cost of busing no longer prohibitive.  And the kids seemed to get out of the trip what it should be: an exposure to something new, a stimulation of thought, and a lot of fun.

In addition to traveling through “Journey Stories,” children participated in a “Life in a Box” program, which forced them to choose the most valuable items they would pack if they needed to take their life on the road—a tricky balance between practicality and emotional attachment.  As recounted by Tracy Ketterling, a teacher at the Anishinabe Academy, a Native American school in Minneapolis (many of whose students had never been on a field trip before), the exercise had much “relevance to our population.”  They also watched a few storytellers.  After all, history is a story of its people.  They learned how Minnesota fit underneath the arch of America’s growth, hearing about the booming fur trade of pioneer days and local folklore like Paul Bunyan.  Afterward, the children witnessed living history, visiting the preserved farm of Andrew Peterson, one of the town’s oldest members who had emigrated from Sweden in the late 1800s. 

 

And like all stories, each of history’s narrators has a different perspective.  As Ms. Ketterling said, “It is interesting to hear the journey stories from different points of view.  We tend to think of it in terms of being invaded, and in ways violated by the waves of foreign people […] who were sold a skewed version of what was available for them here.  It still took a lot of courage to not only uproot their selves from a life they knew, but to bring their families along on the arduous adventure.”

History isn’t a fairytale; it’s a collection of authors.  It’s who we are, in all our glory and our shame.  But it’s a must-read, and like Smithsonian and Carver County, we want to make sure everyone has a copy.

-- Alexandra Charleston, Museum on Main Street, Washington, DC

A Day in the Life of a MoMSer: Refurbishing

Exhibits need check-ups, too.  On average, there are five copies of each MoMS exhibit on the road.  Each travels for approximately six years, but we make sure to book a little R&R into their busy tour schedules—and that stands for “refurbishment and rehabilitation.”  Each copy routinely checks into our fabrication unit in Maryland, the Office of Exhibits Central (OEC), for a full inspection from the experts.

After numerous shipments and the occasional “oops” during installation, there’s always an inevitable dig or scratch in each exhibit.  Or sometimes it’s just those eager children’s handprints that need wiping off.  (We love their enthusiasm, though!)  And even though we tested substrates and laminates before the exhibit was created—leaving panels in freezing temperatures or trapped in hot cars—there’s always that pesky graphic whose corner begins to peel.

   

The graphics department at OEC fixes the major issues like punctures or fading colors, and our tech guru, Dan, makes sure the audio stations are still humming along.  For us MoMSers, it’s a day of wheeling crates back and forth, lifting heavy panels, and wiping down surfaces.  Aside from a full out brawl whether to go to Chik-Fil-A or Panera for lunch (just kidding), the day goes relatively smoothly, and it’s a nice change of scene from the usual computer screen.  It can be exhausting work, but hey, at least there’s no need to go to the gym afterward!

 

So despite an exhibit's age, we're still making sure it looks brand new when it gets to your town.

-- Alexandra Charleston, Museum on Main Street, Washington, DC

 

Our New Exhibit! (TWWW Part I)

Presenting…

“The Way We Worked!” 

As we kick off 2011, the MoMS team is excited to announce our latest exhibit.  Based on the National Archives original exhibit, “The Way We Worked” explores the nature of work in the United States throughout the past 150 years.

Even though the exhibit won’t begin its tour until September, the planning process began long beforehand.  In 2007, MoMS provided state humanities councils and the most recent 150 host sites with a few exhibit proposals, and “The Way We Worked” muscled through to claim top seat. 

And from that moment, MoMS got straight to work.  Even though the original exhibit provided a solid base, we needed to adapt the structure and content for a traveling show.  Consulting with Dr. Bruce Bustard, curator of the original National Archives exhibit, and scholars from Georgetown, American University, and the National Museum of American History, the MoMS show slowly began to take shape.  To add more variety, we’ve hunted down additional photos and objects, and we’ve decided to break down the content into 4 sections: Where We Worked, How We Worked, Who Works, and Why We Work.  And with the help of Dr. Bustard and Rosemary Reagan, Head Editor at Smithsonian fabrication unit, the Office of Exhibits Central (OEC), MoMSers Robbie and Tiffany have been whittling down pencil tips rewriting and rewriting the script, each draft becoming closer to what soon will be every final word in the titles, paragraphs, captions, and credits displayed on the panels.

Simultaneously, we’ve been hovering over the drawing board.  Sketching through a few ideas with OEC designer Alicia Jager, together we’ve conceptualized how the exhibit should look – everything from tones to typeface!  Even though these graphic design files need revision, too, the alluring, creative displays are the masterwork of Alicia’s beautiful artistry.  And they’re practical, too – meeting the size, packing, crating, and weight restrictions registrar Terri demands. 

 

And of course, where would we be without the remarkable enthusiasm of our future host sites?  Hosting a few training courses and maintaining constant communication, MoMS is working with state humanities councils to equip future venues with marketing packets, educational materials, docent handbooks, and programming ideas.

If you're interested in seeing what it takes to create an exhibit, keep checking back because we’ll walk you through the production process for “The Way We Worked.”  We hope you’re just as excited as we are!

-- Alexandra Charleston, Museum on Main Street, Washington, DC

A Year in Review

It’s been another great year for Museum on Main Street (MoMS)!  The team charted 73,770 miles and hopped around to 21 states—and this year’s mileage even beats the year we flew to Guam!  Four exhibits are currently on the road and have visited 101 host sites on their tours.

As each Close Out Report (a venue’s summary of the exhibit’s reception, programming, and media coverage) steadily trickles back to our D.C. office, we are continuously amazed by the passion and hard work of each host site throughout the nation.  We hear story upon story of how these exhibits have educated and inspired individuals, brought them together, given them a chance to share their own stories.  These exhibits become more than just panels with words and pictures, more than just an event to fill a weekday evening, but a mechanism to bring a community together and facilitate discussion.  That’s exactly what MoMS tries to do, and it would not be possible without the many people working behind the scenes.  Thank you!

While MoMS exhibits were road tripping throughout the country, the MoMS crew pitched a tent on the Mall during this summer’s Folklife Festival, an annual fair that highlights three cultures.  One of the “cultures” this year uncovered the many—often unseen—departments of the Smithsonian, and MoMS gave many festival-goers a peek into the preparation, production, and execution of our exhibits.

Although excitement culminates when a venue opens an exhibit to the public, the initial buzz begins during the planning process, long before an exhibit’s installation.  This year we held two conferences (one in Annapolis and one in Albuquerque) to help upcoming host states plan and organize installation, exhibition development, events and programming, and advertisement.  Representatives and scholars from each state came together to share helpful hints and bounce ideas off each other, and their collaboration and enthusiasm is bound to make these next years at least as successful as this one. We look forward to what’s to come in 2011!     

-- Alexandra Charleston, Museum on Main Street, Washington, DC

On-Set with Mount Airy

Our own Tiffany Ruhl and Robbie Davis have recently returned from their trip to Mt. Airy, North Carolina. Ruhl and Davis are working in conjunction with Heron Media to create an orientation video for the New Harmonies exhibit, to be revealed to states at the onset of each tour. The team has been interviewing curators and humanities council representatives for the film, in addition to going on-site at various venues to capture the exhibit's strength on camera. Below, you will find Tiffany's summary of the team's experience in Mt. Airy in journal-entry format. Read on to uncover her first-hand account:

"Mount Airy, NC is known as the home of Andy Griffith and the inspiration for the town of Mayberry in The Andy Griffith Show, but it’s also home to music lovers! Besides Andy Griffith, it’s the home of country singer Donna Fargo.

 

On the fun side, we ate at a famous local haunt, The Snappy Lunch (founded in 1923) to try their ‘Famous Pork Chop’ sandwich. Then, it was off to the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History to start filming. The staff of the museum was wonderful. They are incredibly enthusiastic about the exhibition. Mount Airy has a great lineup of events, so New Harmonies’ stay in Mount Airy is bound to be great success.

 

On Wednesday, we filmed local blues and jazz singer Melva Houston. Melva has traveled the world teaching and spreading an appreciation of jazz and blues, but makes her home in Mount Airy. She spoke movingly of the impact music has had on her life and gave an impromptu performance at the “Lunch and Learn” session. They had a great turn out of about 50 people.

 

We then followed Melva and guests back to tour “New Harmonies” in the museum. We filmed guests there interacting with the exhibition for the video. In addition to filming the exhibition, we interviewed Darrell Stover from the North Carolina Humanities Council. Darrell is a cultural historian and Statewide Coordinator for MoMS in North Carolina. He’s also a natural on camera!

 

Darrell gave a great rundown of why North Carolina chose New Harmonies as the first MoMS exhibition to tour their state. As he put it, in terms of roots music in NC, ‘It’s all here.’”  - Tiffany Ruhl

 

Our thanks go out to Heron Media and all other persons and entities that have aided in the production of our New Harmonies orientation film!

-- Roxanne Berschler -- SITES/Museum on Main Street, Washington D.C.

New Mexico, Here We Come!

Yesterday the MoMS team worked at Office of Exhibit Central to get the latest copy of New Harmonies on the road! As I type this, the exhibit is traveling to its first stop in New Mexico.

We are looking forward to another exciting year for the New Harmonies exhibit, and can't wait to see what creative programming ideas, events, and local exhibitions will blossom out of this tour!

 

  
 
 Many thanks go out to our counterparts at OEC who helped us with some excellent exhibit refurb!

 -- Roxanne Berschler, SITES -- Washington, D.C.

On the Road Again (and We Love It)

One of the things I most appreciate about working with Museum on Main Street is the opportunity we have to visit so many interesting places in the U.S. and to meet wonderful people from every corner of the country. In response to a question posed by our Publications office earlier this week, my MoMS Smithsonian-based colleagues Carol Harsh and Terri Cobb and I sat down to figure out just how many miles we had logged traveling this year for MoMS.

Can I get a drum roll, please? After Carol visits Indian Springs, Georgia next week, the three of us will have traveled 67,299 miles for MoMS in 2009. And, we got the chance to visit fascinating places big and small like Alliance and Omaha in Nebraska; Kodiak, Alaska; Kirksville, Missouri; Renton, Washington; Tuscumbia, Alabama; Berkeley Springs, Grafton, and Petersburg in West Virginia; Kingsland and Carrollton in Georgia; Hagatna and Asan in Guam; Sidney, Ohio; Sycamore and Chicago in Illinois; Austin, Texas; Indianapolis, Indiana; Lindsborg, Kansas; Clinton, Mississippi; Okmulgee, Oklahoma; Enderlin and Bismarck in North Dakota; Ocean City, Maryland; and Hanley Falls, Minnesota. We can't even begin to imagine how many additional miles our Federation of State Humanities Council colleagues, our state humanities council partners, and the exhibitions themselves traveled as part of this project. My math-challenged brain can't handle it. But, one thing is sure, we have the enormous privilege of serving and experiencing communities everywhere.

We're looking forward to visiting your state and meeting you during our travels in 2010.

-- Robbie Davis, MoMS/SITES, Washington, DC

Will Cook for Adventure...

A fun story came in from Arden Williams, Program Manager for the Georgia Humanities Council. It turns out that an enthusiasm for American foodways is not the only upshot from the Key Ingredients exhibit:

Danny Williams, Arden’s son, discovered a link to his latest career at the grand opening of the Key Ingredients exhibit in Vidalia, Georgia. Following an introduction to Vidalia’s site director Dusty Gres and her husband, Danny was asked to hop onboard a tugboat and join the Biblia staff down in Savannah! Biblia Inc. provides a variety of tugboat services, and was in the market to hire a first-rate chef for the  traveling crew aboard its vessels. Danny has been able to put his cooking skills to good use as he sails from port to port – in fact, the crew has been complaining of weight gain due to Danny’s fabulous meals.

The tugboat is currently nearing Baldhead Island, North Carolina, which was once crawling with pirates. Let’s hope Danny doesn’t get any wise ideas as he helps out with the dredging equipment! 

As Arden has said, this story showcases the power of food. The art of cooking can take us on powerful journeys. A familiar scent wafting from the kitchen can transport us back in time – to memories of childhood, and talent in the kitchen can lead us to our future adventures…aboard a tugboat for instance! 

Below is a photo of Danny's barge, and of Danny and Arden helping out with the Key Ingredients exhibit.   

                               

                               

Do you have any memories of food to share? For example -  stories about a recipe that was brought by your ancestors from the Old World, or a vacation made fonder by a special meal? Please feel free to comment on this blog post and tell us about your “food stories” -- the American experience is what MoMS is all about! Thanks MoMS community, we can’t wait to read your contributions – all are welcome!

Thanks to Arden and Danny Williams for this great tale!

 -- Roxanne Berschler, SITES, Washington D.C.