"I've never seen a culture before"
Have you ever seen a culture?
Once in awhile - sometimes a very long while - we see signs of success. We find little bits of evidence that what we do as museum workers might really make a difference.
One such little bit of evidence recently turned up on a low-tech interactive component in our current exhibition A Yemeni Community: Photographs from the 1970s by Milton Rogovin. This is a warm and rich collection of black and white images that documents life in an immigrant community in Lackawanna, New York. Milton Rogovin strategically omits the use of titles for his photographs of "the forgotten ones" to prod the viewer to look more carefully and reflect on their content of the pictures. So, we have included a panel in our exhibit that invites our visitors to write their own titles or captions for some of the images.
Kids (and adults) continue to stick their notes on our interactive wall (we are saving all of them). Of course, some make no sense (to us), but many have brief personal reflect
ions and comments that indicate our visitors are really connecting with the exhibit. One of these notes is shown here. It says "I've never seen a culture before." I believe this to be a marvelous bit of evidence that we may have had a profound impact on one our young visitors - perhaps for the first time he or she became aware of something we too often take for granted, our "culture" and all that potent little word stands for. If this is so, our visitor has made a giant leap toward understanding his or her world.
Of course, this is just a beginning, and we have much more work to do. But it made my day when I saw that little note!
One such little bit of evidence recently turned up on a low-tech interactive component in our current exhibition A Yemeni Community: Photographs from the 1970s by Milton Rogovin. This is a warm and rich collection of black and white images that documents life in an immigrant community in Lackawanna, New York. Milton Rogovin strategically omits the use of titles for his photographs of "the forgotten ones" to prod the viewer to look more carefully and reflect on their content of the pictures. So, we have included a panel in our exhibit that invites our visitors to write their own titles or captions for some of the images.
Kids (and adults) continue to stick their notes on our interactive wall (we are saving all of them). Of course, some make no sense (to us), but many have brief personal reflect
ions and comments that indicate our visitors are really connecting with the exhibit. One of these notes is shown here. It says "I've never seen a culture before." I believe this to be a marvelous bit of evidence that we may have had a profound impact on one our young visitors - perhaps for the first time he or she became aware of something we too often take for granted, our "culture" and all that potent little word stands for. If this is so, our visitor has made a giant leap toward understanding his or her world.Of course, this is just a beginning, and we have much more work to do. But it made my day when I saw that little note!
Labels: culture, Rogovin, Temporary Exhibits, visitor participation, Yemeni community
posted by Steve at
10:06 AM
3 Comments:
nice!
Love this! More more more!
Promoted this blog in this week's enews as well.
Thanks!
Hello Steve, Congrats on on having crafted a career that you are obviously passionate about.I'm a professional exhibit designer, painter and sculptor, and a childhood friend of your communications person, Kim Silarski. Kim and I went to grade school through Highschool together, and I've know her since she was a sweet little tot on the playground. We recently connected again through facebook, where I discovered that she was associated with your wonderful museum.I'm a rabid student of learning and have a particular passion for tradition (my painting style is Impressionist-1900s), ethnic culture, and, as a painter, find that there is no stronger evidence of spirit that the beauty inherent in the communion of diverse peoples with one another. I'm a musician, also (I noticed that the "theramin" is one of your passions-it's on my list to make :-)> I recently wrote to a phenomenal young Arab doumbek player in Iraq that I had discovered on Youtube. I told him that one of the greatest tragedies of the political unrest between our cultures is that it those that the discord made it impossible to enjoy the fellowship of those that simply enjoy the music-the wonderful rhythms of a different culture. Clicking on the link to your museum from Kim's Facebook site inspires me to paint. I'm constantly looking to blur the boudaries between my fine art and commercial work. Mayhap watercolors or oils of beautiful dark skinned immigrants finding their way in an alien land, discovering the next step in their personal growth, and adding to their adopted culture? My new blog site has loads of my work-
stottsmonkey.wordpress.com
If you have an opportunity, check it out. If you find that you have enthusiasm for what I am creating, please feel free to contact me, or speak to Kim. It would be great fun, as a designer and artist to delve into your culture, and help you craft your institution's next step and to work again with a childhood friend. Why you amongst the curators to contact? Simple, I follow my intuition, and you are the guy.My email is stottsmonkey@gmail.com
Respectfully,
Bob
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