Researched, wrote text, conceptualized design, sourced images, planned & promoted opening reception. Exhibit provides context for on-site, fully functioning blacksmith shop, identifying basic tools and processes of blacksmithing, as well as explaining the connection to farm life to aid self-guided visitors. Read more here.
Designed in collaboration between University Archives and Honors College, I researched, selected objects, and wrote labels for the exhibit, which celebrated two anniversaries of the honors program at UNCW. I wrote a blog post about the exhibit for the Archives blog.
“Push and Pull: Russian and Eastern European Migration to the Cape Fear Region” at UNCW Randall Library and Pender County Public Library, 2014
At the Push and Pull Exhibit Opening at Pender County Public Library, October 2014.
With my co-curators at the opening.
Presentation on Push and Pull at NCPH conference, where the exhibit also won a Student Project Award.
One of the artifact cases. This child’s suit was representative of the Starodubtsev migration journey and cultural differences.
For Love or Money: Post-Soviet Migration. I curated this section of the exhibit in its entirety from research & artifact selection, through fabrication & installation.
The interactive area and the case displaying the original suitcase that the interactive is modeled after.
Suitcase Interactive Component. Visitors were posed the question of what they would bring if they left their home country.
Exhibit opening
Installing the child’s jacket on the custom mount.
After installing the shelf it needed a few paint touch-ups. This area was the interactive corner I designed and fabricated.
Sewing the body-shape to the padded hanger to create a mount for Anton’s suit.
Mount making
Designing object labels with Adobe Illustrator.
Cleaning the cases after installation.
Curators with Dr. Gordon.
Dr. Gordon introducing us student curators. From left to right: Jayd Buteaux, Leslie Randle-Morton, Beth Nevarez (me), and Dr. Gordon.
Making a padded hanger: Sawing a wooden hanger to make it fit a child’s suit.
Presenting at Collecting Heritage Conference. My presentation title: “Russian Cultural Values in Migration: Artifacts as Witness to Family, Education, and Heritage in Transition.” This information about material culture informed the exhibit.
The Push and Pull exhibit was the culmination of a year-long project that included oral history interviews, a material culture study, and research. I found items to take on loan for the exhibit, interviewed participants, wrote exhibit text, designed and fabricated exhibit elements, made mounts, and more. Clips from the oral histories used in the exhibit are available here.An exhibit mockup, created for a course. The exhibit plan determines themes, text, artifacts, and images that could be used to tell the story of resistance during the Holocaust and is centered on the testimony of one survivor. Using her memories and specific life story, I placed her experiences in the context of resistance more generally. View the mock up exhibit here: Like Sheep? Hope vs. Resistance in the Ghetto (opens as a PowerPoint file).
