Hello everyone--I am working on a discussion seminar that I will be
facilitating for students in my public history graduate program. The topic
is on how musuems are changing to fit the needs of their communities, and
how this changes when a community is faced with a local disaster.

In particular, I am looking at a few different areas of museum practices and
have a few examples for discussion.


--Programming and exhibitions--I am interested in how the Cincinnati History
Museum was able to research, write, and mount an exhibition in less than
three months as a response to the race riots that occured in their city this
past April. The museum was in a position to participate in the larger
discussion taking place in their community between residents, community
leaders, police, and the media, and to add the historical perspective to
this debate.

--Collections--Using our recent discussion of the WTC flag, I would like to
discuss how local disasters force us to deal with issues of our
collections--whether an item is appropriate, whether there is some other
need for that item, etc.

--Museums directly relating to the crisis--for this I would like to deal
with the Elian Gonzalas museum in Miami. Obviously, this is a museum that is
taking a particular side on an issue, and how does that affect the community
in which it is built?

Other interesting community responses that I would be interested in learning
more about would be:

--responses by local organizations to the Columbine tragedy
--the memorial and terrorist center built in Oklahoma City

Those are just a few that come to mind. I know that we have discussed many
of these issues as part of our recent WTC flag debate, so we don't need to
rehash them now. Mainly, I am looking for suggested readings that I might
provide for students at this discussion. Does anyone know of any good
articles that relate to any of the above topics? Does anyone have any
suggestions for things I am leaving out?

Feel free to reply to me off list. Thank you in advance for your help.

Sincerely, Eloise Scroggins, Indianapolis
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