"Seeds of Change": A pop-up museum for Monterey

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plantsHeading to Monterey for the National Council on Public History’s annual meeting next week?  Don’t forget to pack your contribution to NCPH’s first pop-up exhibit, “Seeds of Change:  Public History and Sustainability”!

Generated entirely from participant contributions and built onsite at NCPH, “Seeds of Change:  Public History and Sustainability” will examine how issues of sustainability converge with the work we are doing in public history.  We hope that the exhibit will facilitate conversation and serve as a forum for discussion about the conference theme.  We invite conference attendees to share their experiences with sustainable practices and to brainstorm creative ways that historians can help general audiences comprehend, historicize, and complicate discussions about sustainability.

Beyond what we already know about reducing waste, promoting recycling, and recognizing the harmful effects of plastics, how can we discuss sustainability at various levels (individual, organizational, and governmental) to promote action?  Our goal is to explore the ways we understand sustainability and provoke conscientious reflection about how public historians can put environmental issues into historical perspective and implement sustainable practices in their work.

This exhibit will examine five aspects of sustainability in public history to investigate the intersection of public history, the environment, human labor, and cultural resources:

popup-categoriesThrough participants’ contributions, we hope to promote deeper understanding and foster new conversations about sustainability and our work as public historians.

But we can’t do it without your help!

Here’s how you can contribute to the pop-up exhibit:

1)  Think about your own experiences or site/organization

  • What sustainable initiatives and practices are happening where you work?
  • Do you have ideas about sustainable practices at public history sites?  Or how historians can engage the topic of sustainability in their work?

2)  Take a photo or draw a sketch of your sustainable practice

  • Please make sure to print the image prior to arriving at the pop-up exhibit.  We will not have access to a printer on site.

3)  Write a label for your image

  • Decide which category—plants, history, trash, buildings, or memory—best fits your image.
  • In 50 words, write a brief description of your image on the appropriate template.
  • Please also include a question, challenge, or vision for the future on your label to spark conversation and engage participants at the exhibit!

 4)  Bring your image and label to the conference in Monterey!

5)  Swing by the Pop-Up Museum on Friday, March 21 in the Exhibit Hall and contribute to NCPH’s first pop-up exhibit!  

  • There are prizes available in each category—plants, history, trash, buildings, and memory—so be sure to stop by the exhibit with your image and label!

Trying to figure out what to contribute?  Take a look at these examples and prompts:

  • Your historic site has created a garden and now produces vegetables for sale.  Take a photo, write a label, and bring it to Monterey!
  • How does your site seek to put environmental issues into historical context?
  • Your site has begun collecting oral histories from members in the community related to your site.  How does this sustain community history through memory?
  • Is your site housed in a historic building that has been repurposed as a museum space?  How does preservation contribute to a green environment?  For some examples, check out the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
  • What does your site do with trash?  Do you recycle?  Do you reuse materials in innovative ways?
  • Have you seen good models of sustainability in your community?
  • Has your site “gone digital”?  How do you use digital/social media?  Have you replaced paper communications with email?  How does this practice reduce refuse and contribute to sustainability?

Looking forward to seeing you in Monterey!

~ Lauren Duval, Leah Shore, and Nicole Orphanides are graduate students in the Public History Program at American University.

For a PDF version of this call for participation, click here.  For a PDF of the exhibit label sheet, click here.

 

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