Dear Karen V Heege:
I'm going to respond on-list because I think these issues are worthy of public
discussion.
You wrote: > Whose history or experience does your museum portray, the "home"
country, or the experience in America?>
At the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, we interpret the immigrants'
experiences in New York City, focusing primarily on Manhattan's Lower East
Side.
You wrote: <What time period(s)?> 1864-1935
You wrote: <Is your museum an independent entity or are you affiliated with a
larger organization, such as a benevelent society?>
The museum is owned and operated by a not-for-profit, 501.(c).3, corporation.
However, it is also an affiliate of the National Park Service, and is a
National Trust site.
You wrote: >What percentage of the staff, paid and volunteer, is of that
particular culture?>
We have a paid staff of professionals and paraprofessionals. Volunteers vary
between those who are fairly regular, to those that help with projects on a
short-term basis. ..... In the building, we interpret residents who lived
there during the years it was a tenement. It is hard to duplicate those
nationalities because the city's immigrant demographics have changed.
However, we make an effort to bring aboard immigrants, and those that were
born here but have lived in immigrant families. I'm in the latter category.
You wrote:
<Who is your audience...? Are you associated with any type of ethnic
organization consortium?>
We are in the process of evaluating a visitor survey, so I don't want to open
my keyboard too wide until the results are tabulated. However, our audience
is a mix of tourists, locals of multiple backgrounds, and student groups.
We're always working toward diversifying our audience.
The Lower East Side Tenement Museum has a plethora of programs to reach
nonattending populations. Some of those include our participation in the City
Life theater program, networking with public schools, and meeting with
immigrant and cultural community leaders to find ways to make the museum and
its programs more accessible to them. We also work closely with the
neighborhood's Business Improvement District.
You wrote:
<What does your museum exhibit, history, art or some combination?>
The Tenement Museum is a social history museum. To interpret the lives of
immigrants of the period, we use a combination of genre: museum theater,
film, guided tours of the tenement and neighborhood, exhibitions,
publications, and artifacts and objects displayed in the apartments (some that
the visitors can touch and listen to). The building's interior design and
architecture are also a part of what is exhibited.
Our research department helps keep our interpretive program fresh by
continuously digging up new information.
.................
These are good questions. Hopefully other institutions will report online,
and we'll get a chance to take a look inside their doors.
Michael Radice
Director of Program Development
Lower East Side Tenement Museum
66 Allen St.
New York, NY 10002
212-431-0233
http://www.wnet.org/tenement
Director of Program Development
Lower East Side Tenement Museum
66 Allen St.
New York, NY 10002
212-431-0233
http://www.wnet.org/tenement
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