Stories from Home: Exhibit Testing During Covid-19
We’re noticing a trend with our new online story recording service for museums and cultural organizations: gathering stories for future exhibits. It provides a way to reach visitors in their homes, and have them submit their video stories via their own devices.
The Museum of Durham History, for example, is using the service to record stories from women who are leaders in politics for their upcoming exhibit on the centennial anniversary of the 19th Amendment. The Blackstone Heritage Corridor, the nonprofit partner with the affiliated National Park, is using the service to gather stories from families in mill working communities along the river that led the American Industrial Revolution.
Greensboro History Museum is documenting stories on racial and social justice. And New Bedford Whaling Museum is gathering initial stories for their upcoming exhibit Common Ground, focusing on the diverse stories that create the mosaic of community. Additional projects are in the works and we look forward to highlighting those in the near future.
The main approach has been to provide a lost cost monthly service allowing museums to reach out and connect with community members even when contact in our physical locations is curtailed and diminished. As communities begin to open up, the same cloud based service ties in with our exhibit Storykiosk stations and popup stations, allowing a mix of both onsite and offsite paths to highlighting community voices.