On July 13, the Museums Council of New York City held a Museums
Professionals Workshop at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center
in Mashantucket, Connecticut.  Over seventy museum professionals from the
New York City area participated.  As is usually the case with Museums
Council meetings, the participants ranged from clerical staff to Executive
Directors, to Trustees of member museums.

I won't detail the program or the responses.  However, for those of you not
familiar with this extraordinary museum, I encourage you first to visit
www.mashantucket.com and then the museum itself, about 3 hours north of New
York City.  The building, designed by Polshek Partners Architects (the same
firm designing the Hall of Science's impending expansion), is immense
(300,000 square feet).  The design team made an introductory presentation
which made the complex plan of the museum much more comprehensible; and an
architectural tour further illuminated the design of the facility.  It
really can be a bit too much to take in the concept of the museum at one
visit, though this is my second trip, and I began to feel more competence in
finding my way around.

The exhibition designers, Design Division of New York City, and the head of
research at the Museum (which is formally known as a museum and research
center), also made introductory presentations.  About half of the
participants toured the research facilities and collection storage, though I
passed this up.  Apparently, the facility is positioning itself through
acquisitions, site archaeology, and a research library as a central resource
in a few areas:  1) 20th century native american history; 2) the
comprehensive history of northeast woodlands indians; and 3) contemporary
native american art (though this last area seemed a bit undefined).

The exhibitions are magnificent, really.  To me, seeing the chronological
story of human occupation of this region told by the descendants of the
earliest occupants, rather than by the descendants of European occupants,
put a different slant on the interpretation. (From what I have seen of the
Papa te Kanewa museum in New Zealand, they share this characteristic, though
I think in the latter case, the purse strings were held by European
descendants, as opposed to the Pequot Museum, where all the funding comes
from the Tribal Council.  The money originates with the Foxwood Casino, run
by the Pequots, which is the largest casino in North America, apparently.)
However, the exhibition planners stringently avoided Pequot "propaganda," as
tempting as it must have been, and  I was constantly reminded of the
designers desire for balance and historical accuracy.

It is not so much that there is anything ground breaking about the
exhibitions, it is just that everything is done with the highest levels of
craft and apparently the highest levels of scholarship.

I could go on and on, and would be glad to respond to specific inquiries
about this visit.  But above all, the participants in the workshop had an
insiders look at a place that has to be seen.

Eric Siegel
Director, Planning &
Program Development
The New York Hall of Science
http://www.nyhallsci.org

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