In spring 2021, the Yale Collection of American Literature at Beinecke Library and the Public Humanities Program will collaborate to present a graduate workshop focused on the Library’s exhibition, Road Show: Travel Papers in American Literature.
Road Show was initially scheduled to open in May 2020 but was cancelled when the Library closed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The future of the exhibition is uncertain. In light of this, a Public Humanities workshop will consider this unusual situation: your cultural institution plans a major exhibition from its permanent collections but there is a public health crisis that prevents you from welcoming visitors into the building. How do you make the most of the exhibition within necessary limits? VISIT the Road Show website for more information about the exhibiton and the workshop.
Spring 2021 Public Humanities Micro-Credential Workshop (APPLICATION)
(MORE information about Public Humanities Micro Credentials)
This workshop will consider this unusual situation: your cultural institution plans a major exhibition from its permanent collections but there is a public health crisis that prevents you from welcoming visitors into the building. How do you make the most of the exhibition within necessary limits?
This real-time experiment in pandemic-era public exhibitions will offer participants a view of various aspects of exhibition planning, curation, and production; institutional communications; audience development and cultivation; and program planning.
Participants will devise, develop, and execute strategies for repositioning (recycling, reimagining) the exhibition in the current context. This work will include:
* using your own areas of expertise (in and beyond Beinecke collections) to articulate, expand, and / or adapt the exhibition’s central themes;
* writing and workshopping text for use in social media, public spaces, and elsewhere;
* reaching known audiences and cultivating new audiences using Beinecke social media outlets;
*creating an online “micro exhibition” and resource collection based on objects in Beinecke collections related to exhibition themes. Your micro exhibition will explore and utilize your choice of format, software, social media, and web platform — including but not limited to Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Sway, Tumblr, blogs, podcasts, playlists (SEE examples);
* presenting your micro exhibition in a public event hosted by the Beinecke Library.