PROPOSAL TYPE
Traditional Panel (90 minutes) or Individual (30 minutes)
SEEKING
- Seeking General Feedback and Interest
- Seeking Additional Presenters
RELATED TOPICS
- Advocacy
- Memory
- Museums/Exhibits
- Public Engagement
- Teaching and Training
ABSTRACT
One of the challenges facing public historians is communicating the importance of history and historical thinking to the general public. In the L. Tom Perry Special Collections we are attempting to do this via our small case exhibit program. The small case exhibit program allows curators to work directly with students at Brigham Young University to create small case exhibits (2-3 cases) that feature materials from the Perry Special Collections and that tell a story of historical importance. This presentation will discuss the skills that students learn in creating small case exhibits and how those skills help the students become better citizens. It will also discuss how the small case exhibits make collections more accessible and help to bring history alive. These small case exhibits are publicized via social media and to related courses on campus.
DESCRIPTION
We are looking for other panelists who could discuss how they use exhibits or other outreach (social media, etc.) to communicate the importance of history and historical thinking.
If you have a direct offer of assistance, sensitive criticism, or wish to pass along someone’s contact information confidentially, please get in contact directly: Gordon Daines, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Brigham Young University, [email protected]
ALL FEEDBACK AND OFFERS OF ASSISTANCE SHOULD BE SUBMITTED BY JULY 7, 2023. If you have general ideas or feedback to share, please feel free to use the comments feature below.
I appreciate that your proposal is specifically about working with students and collections. it’s always really helpful to hear how those types of projects are designed and how they turn out so other instructors can apply to their own curriculum. I think your proposed discussion topics could definitely fill the entire time if you don’t find additional panelists.
I like that your proposal is specifically about working with students and collections. I really appreciate these types of panels because it’s so helpful to see how the project was designed, what worked and didn’t work, and tangible results. I think your proposed topics could fill the entire time if you are unable to find additional panelists.
This is a very timely proposal and I hope you find session partners who are able to speak to this! Being able to look at what is already in the collection to approach new narratives is a great way to reinvigorate a large collection that may not always see the light of day. Additionally, there is a lot to learn from how social media can assist in the storytelling of a collection, in addition to perhaps connecting the museum to current trends or conversations. Really rich proposal and engaging students? Wonderful!
I appreciate programs that offer students insight into the work we do. To understand the relationship between objects, their use, and their symbolism. I do hope you can identify additional presenters, but I am curious about whether you want this to remain academic, given your work, or open it up to folks who are partnering with academic institutions, but conducting that work through cultural institutions, archives or museums.
Hi Gordon, this is a terrific idea! I wonder if pairing with another collection at your institution might be fruitful — the BYU Museum of Peoples and Cultures also work with students to curate exhibits. Even though it is Anthropology, I think it may resonate. If you need a connection to the director there, please let me know. Also, did you see Rebecca Andersen’s proposal here? I think there are synergies: https://ncph.org/phc/2024-topic-proposals/best-practices-for-creating-sustainable-public-history-class-projects/#comment-5548
Hi Gordon, I like this idea. I think that the use of small exhibits is one way to spark the interest in history and collections acquired by different libraries. I also think that small exhibits would be valuable in other history related fields, such as family history for example. In my work in family history, many of the documents that were digitized would be stored away. My team thought that a small exhibit would create interest and would be a great way to showcase the company’s commitment to preserving family history.