I have had a small, incorporated business as an independent curator for nearly twenty years. My projects have included curatorial work and coordination of exhibitions, interactive media projects, and publications. Even after I returned to school to earn a degree in public history in 2006, I continued to oversee two traveling exhibitions for the next several years. Since graduating in 2011, I have continued my affiliation with Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) as a post-doc, working on grant-funded projects including National Register nominations and digital collections. And I have also continued my work as a curator and museum consultant.

Recognizing the need for outside expertise and because I also enjoy project teamwork, I have always brought in outside contractors as needed. Some examples from recent projects are below. The group of collaborators that I have assembled through the years for projects such as these already represents a type of “consulting alliance,” but needs change and many services are no longer locally place-based. With my particular interest in the digital humanities, I have been reluctant to leave the academy because much of this is currently grantfunded through universities. Which leads me to wonder whether a national public history consulting alliance, with a hybrid public/private business model, could establish enough credibility to be able to win and administer grants from public agencies or other large foundations and thus become integral to the moving frontier of digital scholarship?

Could a broadly based professional public history “consulting alliance” attract grants or foundation funding for exciting and innovative multi-year projects around the country (including digital initiatives, Geographic Information Systems and other interactive map production, community interaction, fieldwork, research, exhibitions, historic preservation, historic reconstruction) even without non-profit status? I envision public historians, historical archeologists, and historic preservationists allied with those bringing specific expertise such as GIS; Print, Web, Electronic App design; Materials Conservation; Architecture and Landscape Architecture.  You will have other things to add to this list. I look forward to exploring these ideas, and all of yours, over the next few months and in our live discussion at the conference.

Past Project Examples from S.W. Knowles & Associates (outside contractor expertise highlighted):

“Two Paths to Progress: W.E.B DuBois, Charles S. Johnson and the New Negro Arts Movement,” Fisk University, CD-rom, 2004
S. W. Knowles: Co-curator, Grant writer, Writer/Researcher/Editor, Image and Rights Acquisition:

  • Photographer
  • Graphic Design
  • Media Production (including Interactive segments, recorded audio and theatrical video clips)
  • CD-rom pressing and cover printing

Tennessee Judiciary Museum, 2012-13
S.W. Knowles: Project Manager, Content Curator and Installer, Image Researcher, and Broker/Coordinator for:

  • Exhibit Design & Build
  • Graphic Design
  • Media Production (Museum Interactive, Website, Image facsimiles and reproductions for display
  • Conservation services (preservation architect for interior, paper conservator for case design and lighting, archival case cabinetmaker)

Back to introductory post about this Working Group.

Discussion

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