Major exhibition opens at History Museum Jan. 16
By Melanie Adams Missouri History Museum
Welcome to 2010 and a new year. This year holds a variety of wonderful programs and exhibits waiting for you at the Missouri History Museum.
My name is Melanie Adams, and I serve as the managing director of Community Education and Events. In this position I oversee the majority of programs at the museum, including the always popular Twilight Tuesdays. While Twilight Tuesdays attracts thousands each week, there are many great programs going on inside the museum on a daily basis.
The museum continues to seek out relationships with community organizations to develop partnerships and programs. In the past few years these partnerships have created the Community Cinema Series with KETC and a genealogy series with the African American History and Genealogy Society of St. Louis.
With the new year comes a topic that is always top of mind in St. Louis: race. Race is an ever present thread that runs through the fabric of life in the St. Louis region. Whether we admit it or not, everyone makes judgments about people based on how they look, where they live and, of course, where they went to high school. The region’s reliance on race to tell a story will be turned on its head with the museum’s first exhibit of the year.
Starting on January 16 at noon, you will be able to experience Race: Are We So Different? an exhibit developed by the American Anthropological Association. This exhibit explores the history of race, the role of science in history, and how racism affects individuals and institutions.
The exhibit is divided into three parts: The Science of Human Variation; The History of the Idea of Race; and The Contemporary Experience of Race and Racism in the United States. Through these lenses and engaging multimedia interactive displays, you will experience race in a way that makes you question your beliefs and think about this important national issue in a different way.
The exhibit opens with a lecture on January 16 at 2 p.m. entitled “99.9% Thoughts on Race, Anthropology, and Common Conceptions,” by Dr. Jacquelyn Lewis-Harris. Dr. Harris serves as the director of The Center for Human Origin and Cultural Diversity at the University of Missouri-St Louis. Her lecture will explore the anthropological aspects of Race and help us answer the question “Are We Really So Different?”
Through the run of the exhibit there are many on-going programs aimed at adult and youth audiences. In an effort to encourage conversations, there will be Talking Circles on Tuesdays at 6 p.m. and Saturdays at 2:30 p.m. Based on the Native American tradition, the Talking Circles will be discussions for visitors to discuss what they saw and felt in the exhibit. Facilitated by the National Conference for Community and Justice, the Talking Circles will be open to visitors on a first-come, first-served basis.
Written specifically for the exhibit when it debuted at the Science Center of Minnesota, Race to the Finish Line is a two-person 20-minute play that tells the story of two friends and what changes after one of them sees the exhibit and the topic of Race enters their friendship and their conversation. The play premieres on January 16 at 3 p.m.
All audiences will enjoy the always popular Teens Make History play, Sticks and Stones. Teens Make History is the museum’s youth theater troupe who research, write, and perform their own plays. Sticks and Stones is based on the teens’ personal experiences of prejudice based on race, class, gender, and age. From being followed in a store to being told they are “acting white,” the students’ stories are sure to resonate with audiences both young and old. The teens will be performing on Saturdays at 11:30 a.m. and Tuesdays at 4:30 p.m. for scheduled youth groups. To schedule your group, please call 314-361-9017.
Finally, the museum in conjunction with Washington University is happy to bring the Human Race Machine to the museum. This machine allows visitors to envision themselves as a different race and learn how much their outward appearance really defines who they are not only to themselves but to the world at large.
After exploring this exhibit, I hope the community begins to realize that knowing someone’s race does not mean you know everything about that person. My race does not define who I am. Race is only one piece of my complex DNA and does not tell my whole story.
For a complete list of programs please visit mohistory.org.