The following listing of collaborative exhibitions, programs and
initiatives has been prepared to accompany "Cooperation or Competing
Visions? Museums and Community Collaborations" a session at the 1997 Annual
Meeting of the American Association of Museums.  Because of the document's
length, it will not be distributed at the session.  We hope the information
is useful and invite everyone to attend:  Tuesday, April 29, 2:00-3:15 p.m.
at the World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia.  If you have any
questions, please contact: Catherine M. Lewis, American Studies Program,
University of Iowa, [log in to unmask]


Collaborative Exhibitions, Public Programs, and Initiatives

Part II

* Shades of LA: A Search for Visual Ethnic and Cultural History. Los Angles
Public Library (1990-present).

This on-going collaborative exhibition was developed and sponsored by the
Photo Friends of the Los Angeles Public Library.  It is intended to
document the lives of social and economic groups whose histories have been
marginalized.

See Rick Moss' review of the exhibition in Public History 18:3 (Summer
1996): 95-96.

Contacts:  Carolyn Cole (Project Director), Judith Hopkins and Sonjin Kim
(Project Coordinators).


* Selected Collaborative Programs. Early American Museum (1990-present).

The Early American Museum (EAM) is a  small museum funded by a local county
tax.  Several years ago, the staff joined the Land of Lincoln Quilters
Association to initiate the Illinois Quilt Research Project.  Selected
members of both organizations traveled to 30 sites throughout the state,
working with volunteers in each community and registered over 15,000
quilts.  The results of this work can be found in our publication, History
From the Heart: Quilt Paths Across Illinois. In addition, the Illinois
State Museum featured quilts from the project to mount an exhibition at the
museum, in Chicago at the State of Illinois Center, and in southern
Illinois at the Arts and Crafts Center.  This past year, during the
commemoration of D-Day, the EAM staff worked with a local newspaper and as
a result, developed an archive of oral history tapes of local veterans,
mounted an exhibition at the museum which later traveled to the local
libraries, offered special programs, and hosted a dance.  The EAM staff
worked with the Cunningham Children's Home to develop an exhibition
celebrating their 50th anniversary.  This exhibition was placed in the
museum and was promoted widely through the Methodist Women's Associations.
Past residents were invited to visit the museum free of charge and offered
a photography workshop for youth on "What is Community?"  Four years ago
the EAM began an exhibition program designed to bring in the public by
featuring their collections.  The staff worked to highlight every community
in Champaign County.  The first year focused on businesses, the second year
on groups and associations, the third year on schools and this year on
neighborhoods.  The EAM has recently joined with the Champaign Park
District to form an African American History Committee.  Over the past few
years, the Afro-American Studies and Research Program and the Krannert Art
Museum from the University of Illinois have joined in the collaboration.
In the fall of 1996, the EAM, in conjunction with the Afro-American Studies
and Research Department jointly produced another collaborative exhibition
that will travel to the Champaign Public Library, Parkland College, and
local schools and other interested businesses and organizations.  The
University featured the committee in a special panel discussion, videotaped
the discussion, and worked with their designer to produce the first
brochure.  Another highly visible program has been the EAM's oral history
project with the German community in the northeast corner of the county.
The museum staff formed an advisory committee who performed almost all of
the oral histories.  These interviews provided the material to mount an
exhibition entitled We're Americans First that looks at the Americanization
of a culture.  Artifacts and photos from these families were featured in
the exhibition.  Invitations to the community were issued through their
churches and the EAM featured them in two different receptions.  As a
result, a group decided to visit their homeland in Germany and the museum
has benefited from their contact with professors at the University of
Oldenburg.  Components of the exhibition were duplicated and sent to
Germany for their display.  This summer the staff is working on a special
program for a number of quilters who have decided to come over.  The EAM
staff also co-produced a Civil War video titled Champaign County During the
Civil War with one of the local libraries and the Civil War Roundtable and
produced a Family Book Series which was written by a retired principal and
well-known storyteller using artifacts and stories about people and
happenings from the community. These programs were featured at the AASLH
meeting in Nashville in 1995 in a session titled "Making History with Your
Community."

Contact: Cheryl L. Kennedy, Early American Museum, P.O. Box 1040, Mahomet,
IL  61853, (217) 586-2612, [log in to unmask]

* Memories of New York Chinatown. Chinatown History Museum (1991?).

This collaborative exhibition was built around a series of questions:  How
have people of diverse cultural experiences remembered Chinatown?  How has
Chinatown been represented and remembered in the mainstream culture? How
have Chinese New Yorkers defined themselves in relation to the larger
American culture?  In addition to the traditional historical narrative,
Memories offered visitors an opportunity to become involved in the
exhibition.  The CHM staff developed timelines and biographical databases
that could be added onto.  Visitors were encouraged to add memories,
photographs, documents, and personal memorabilia to the installation.

See "Creating a Dialogic Museum: The Chinatown History Museum Experiment,"
in Museum and Communities: The Politics of Public Culture, eds. Ivan Karp,
Christine Mullen Kraemer, and Steven D. Lavine (Washington: Smithsonian,
1992), 285-326.

Contact:  John Kuo Wei Tchen

* Seminole. National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
(opened 1991).

This exhibition, located in the Native American exhibit halls of the
National Museum of Natural History, was co-curated by Dr. W. C.  Sturtevant
in the Department of Anthropology and Mr. and Mrs. Tigertail, Seminole
elders from Big Cypress reservation, Florida. JoAllyn Archambault, Director
of the Native American Program for the Department of Anthropology and Aleta
Ringlero, formerly of the museum and now a graduate student at ASU curated
an inter-active video using footage supplied by the Seminole tribal Museum
in Hollywood, Florida, that is part of the exhibit and is titled "Seminole
Interpretations."

Contact:  JoAllyn Archambault ([log in to unmask])

* Where We Live. Missouri Historical Society (June 1991-present)

In June 1991, the MHS launched a new program to encourage St. Louis
communities to study one aspect of identity:  Where We Live.  Selecting
twelve neighborhoods to begin the discussion, the staff created a variety
of accessible studies, that were featured through various media-brochures,
newspaper pictorial essays, and radio and TV spots.  The brochures were the
heart of the program.  Each one outlined the history of a certain area and
included a map to help readers locate landmarks and historic sites.  In
1993, the MHS expanded the program by collaborating with The New Theater on
a play called St. Louis Stories: Scenes From Where We Live.  The museum
also worked with city and county schools on programs like Time Trackers,
which helped engage students in their neighborhoods' history.  By the end
of 1994, thirty-one brochures had been completed.  In 1995, the focus of
the brochures changed to emphasize issues in the larger St. Louis
area-education, work, immigration, conservation, and housing.

Contact:  Lis Armstrong (Department of Community Programs) or David Olson
(Community Programs Manager), Missouri Historical Society, P.O. Box 11940,
St. Louis, MO  63112-0040, (314) 454-3114, [log in to unmask]

* ¿Por Qué Brooklyn? Our Borough's Latino Voices. Brooklyn Historical
Society (October 10, 1991-August 1992).

This collaborative exhibition grew out of the BHS's Hispanic Communities
Project.

See Ellen Synder-Grenier and Barbara Caldwell, "Voices of History," Museum
News 71 (May/June 1992): 56-59.

* Tswaing Crater Museum: Community Participation.  National Cultural
History Museum (1992-1997).

Tswaing is a 2000 hectare site, some 40 km north-north-west of Pretoria,
surrounded by settlements inhabited by more than a million people.  The
main features of this site are the 220,000 year old Pretoria Saltpan
meteorite impact crater, a marsh area, a variety of ecosystems, and the
remains of factories that produced soda-ash and salt.  Tswaing (meaning
"place of salt" in the local Tswana language) constitutes a sensitive and
unique conservation area for the careful management of its multiple
cultural and natural resources, in the disciplines of geology, the
environmental sciences, biology and human history.  Tswaing is currently
being developed by the National Cultural History Museum as an
enviro-museum, known as the Tswaing Crater Museum.  This museum places
strong emphasis on the protection and use of the area's resources for
purposes of research, education, recreation and community empowerment.  All
this is done in close consultation with local people, scientists and
conservation-oriented institutions.  Because of its many outstanding
features and location near Pretoria and Johannesburg, Tswaing is in the
position to attract significant numbers of both local and international
tourists.  Tswaing thus has the potential to become and active and strong
community resource centre, providing an income for sections of local
communities through tourism, and opportunities for recreation as well as
environmental education.  Another project that may be of interest here is
the District Six Museum in Cape Town.  Contact Sandra Prosalendis for more
information.

Contact:  Glyn Balkwill, National Cultural History Museum , P.O. Box 28088,
Sunnyside, 0132RSA, Tel. 27 (0)12 3411320, Fax. 27 (0)12 3416146, email:
[log in to unmask]  Website:  http://www.paperless.co.za/public/nchm/

* American Encounters. National Museum of American History, Smithsonian
Institution (opened 1992).

This collaborative exhibition, which deals with the continuing
interrelationships between Hispanic and Pueblo peoples in the upper Rio
Grande Valley, is a permanent exhibit at NMAH. It was developed in close
collaboration with the people of Santa Clara Pueblo and the community of
Chimayo, both in New Mexico. The co-curators were Richard Ahlborn, Richard
Doty, Rayna Green, and Lonn Taylor; designer was Hank Grasso; educators
were Lisa Falk and Howard Morrison; Lonn Taylor also served as project
director.

Contact:  Lonn Taylor, Historian, Division of Social History, National
Museum of American History (202) 633-9478, [log in to unmask]

* La Frontera/The Border: Art About the Mexico/United States Border Region.
Co-sponsored by the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Centro Cultural de
la Raza in San Diego (opened March 1993).

In March 1993 La Frontera opened in San Diego and then traveled to Centro
Cultural Tijuana, Scottsdale, San Jose, and selected museums.  This
exhibition, focused on border art, was a unique and ultimately successful
collaboration between a mainstream art museum and a community-based arts
group.  It has been considered a "model" by the Rockefeller Foundation,
which provided a grant of $50,000.  It was also funded by the National
Endowment for the Arts.  In the course of the exhibition, a very
controversial element arose-an artists' project called "Art Rebate/Arte
Reembolso," that got national attention from Jesse Helms on the Senate
floor.  A catalogue is available from the two host museums.

Contact: Anne Farrell, Development Director, MCA San Diego, 700 Prospect
St., La Jolla, CA 92037, (619) 454-3541 ext. 110.

* Preston Asia. Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston (1993).

This exhibition focused on costume and textiles of the Asian communities in
Preston.  It employed Asian guest curators, displayed Asian artifacts, and
had Asian and English labels.  Community groups including an Asian women's
embroidery groups made textiles and a traditional Muslim bridal outfit for
the museum and contributed to the development of the exhibition.  Both
Muslim and Hindu groups were involved in the project planning.

The museum also participates in the Ethnic Minority Consultative Group set
up by the Leisure Services Department, Preston Borough Council.  This is a
group of local activists who represent various communities within Preston.
They meet twice a year to offer feedback on the activities of the
department, make suggestions, and raise issues of concern in their
communities.

See Kathryn Mathers, Museums, Galleries, and New Audiences (London: Art and
Society, 1996),  27.

Contact: Ms. Alexandra Walker and Mr. Brian Manning, Harris Museum and Art
Gallery, Market Square, Preston, Lancashire, Great Britain, PR1 2PP.

* Tribute to Survival. Milwaukee Public Museum (1993).

The Afro-American Historical and Cultural Museum in Philadelphia and the
Rhode Island Black Heritage Society in Providence utilized community people
and scholars to collect community material for exhibition and subsequent
publications.  Tribute to Survival, sponsored by the Kellogg Foundation,
was coordinated by Rowena Stewart, director of the AAHCM.  The program was
divided into four steps:  identify community resource people and have them
identify objects, have scholars examine and verify the materials, produce
exhibit scripts, and return the materials to the community.  A film
entitled "The Process" focuses on this and several other collaborative
ventures.  "Precious Memories," documents an earlier project called the
Rhode Island Black History Project.

See L. Thomas Frye, "Museum Collecting for the Twenty-First Century," in
Lonn W. Taylor, ed., A Common Agenda for History Museums (Nashville, AASLH,
1987), 32-38.

Contact: Rowena Stewart

* Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation. Wight Art Gallery at the
University of California, Los Angeles, the    CARA National Advisory
Council (1993-4).

Chicano Art, an interpretive exhibition of work from the Chicano art
movement, was a collaborative exhibition organized by the Wight Art Gallery
and CARA (Chicago Art: Resistance and Affirmation).  The goal of the
project was "to document and analyze the roots and complexities of the most
recent, significant and unified development of Mexican art and culture in
the United States-Chicano art."

See "Companeros and Partners: The CARA Project," in Museum and Communities:
The Politics of Public Culture, eds. Ivan Karp, Christine Mullen Kraemer,
and Steven D. Lavine (Washington: Smithsonian, 1992), 262-284.

Contact:  Edith A. Tonelli, Wight Art Gallery, University of California,
Los Angeles

* The Nehru Gallery Textile Project. The Victoria and Albert Museum, London
(1993-1996).

The Nehru Gallery Textile Project brought South Asian women in the museum
to learn about the history and manufacture of the Indian textiles in the
V&A's collection.  These women have since been making their own panels
using techniques learned at museum workshops.  Work was carried out in
local community centers and schools and participants were encouraged to
visit their local and other museums for inspiration.  Over the last three
years, the project has expanded to include groups of South Asian women from
all over Britain.  They have been supported by other museums that have made
their textile collections and educational resources available.  Women in
India, Bangladesh, Burma, Dubai, and the United States are now involved in
creating textile panels for the project.  All the panels produced will be
used for an exhibition in the V&A planned for 1996.

See Kathryn Mathers, Museums, Galleries, and New Audiences (London: Art and
Society, 1996), 48.

Contact: Ms. Shereen Akbar, Mr. Robin Cole-Hamilton, Ms. Alice Wong,
Victoria and Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, South Kensington, London, Great
Britain, SW7 2RL.

* Great City!, A People's Gallery, Al Hambra, Mass Observation, Locked in
the Museum, The People's Choice.        Tyne and Wear Museums, Great
Britain (1993-1996).

The Tyne and War Museums (TWM) administers 13 museums and galleries in
Gateshead, Newcastle, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, and Sunderland.
TWM has taken various steps to attract new visitors.  New permanent
displays such as Great City! which opened in 1993, were developed with the
participation of various groups in the community.  Reminiscence projects
with senior citizens have contributed to exhibitions in local museums about
the social history of Newcastle, Sunderland, and Gateshead.  Local TWM
established partnerships with community-based groups to develop educational
programs within the museums themselves, thereby making them accessible to
new audiences.  TWM believes that projects based in the museum offer a
better experience for participants than projects based in local centers.  A
People's Gallery in the Discovery Museum is reserved for exhibitions
developed with community groups and organized by an outreach worker funded
by City Challenge, part of the government's inner city program.  Examples
of activities organized in 1995 include: Al Hambre, set up by West End
Muslim women with One World Association, Mass Observation, a photographic
exhibition produced by 300 disabled Tyneside people organized with the
Northern Disability Arts Forum, and Locked in the Museum, a play put on by
adults with severe learning difficulties.  The People's Choice exhibition
series at the Sunderland Museum and Art Gallery offers individuals and
groups the opportunity to select works from the museum's collections, write
captions explaining why they selected a particular work of art and plan the
layout of the exhibition.  Three exhibitions have been mounted since
December 1993-one by a group of local people who attended an art course,
one by hearing impaired children from Sunderland Primary School, and
another by a group of young men living in bail hostels run by the
Northumbria Probation Service.

See Kathryn Mathers, Museums, Galleries, and New Audiences (London: Art and
Society, 1996), 43-44.

Contact:  Ms. Helen Sinclair, Sunderland Museum and Art Gallery, Borough
Road, Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, Great Britain, SR1 1PP.

* Breaking Ground: Plants and People.  Brooklyn Botanical Garden and the
Brooklyn Children's Museum (1993-8).

With a grant from the National Science Foundation, the Brooklyn Botanical
Garden and Brooklyn Children's Museum collaborated on a series of
interactive exhibitions and programs focused on plants-their importance to
human life and their place in the urban environment.  This is the first
time the two institutions have worked together on a major project.  The
five year project will cost three million dollars.  When completed, it will
include an outdoor Discovery Garden at the BBG, mobile activity carts,
take-home guidebooks, and a series of exhibitions.

Contact:  Lori Duggan Gold, Brooklyn Botanical Garden, (718) 941-4044 x 248
or Barbara Perlov, the Brooklyn Children's Museum, (718) 488-6260.

* My Brighton-Community History Project. Brighton Museum and Art Gallery,
branch of The Royal Pavilion, Art Gallery and Museums, Great Britain
(1994).

My Brighton is an interactive multimedia project developed with the
assistance of local residents, particularly young people.  The project took
advantage of both multimedia expertise in Brighton and the museum's
under-used collection of photographs and maps to offer all users a dynamic
insight into local history and culture.  A questionnaire was distributed
throughout the city asking residents to identify whose viewpoint would be
of most interest to them:  a homeless person, a policeman or woman, a
primary school child, or an architect.  Volunteers fitting these
descriptions were  recruited as "tour guides."  They photographed the
city's sites and described themselves and the photographs they took.  An
additional 100 volunteers helped research the topics selected by the "tour
guides."  They also helped select additional illustrations and artifacts
relating to each site from the museum's collections.  All this information
is available in the gallery through two touch screen computers.

See Kathryn Mathers, Museums, Galleries, and New Audiences (London: Art and
Society, 1996),  22.

Contact:  Ms. Jinita Bagshaw and Mr. John Roles, Brighton Museum and Art
Gallery, 4/5 Pavilion Buildings, Brighton, East Sussex, Great Britain, BN1
1UE.



Catherine M. Lewis