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April Issue 2009
Levine Museum
of the New South in Charlotte, NC, Offers Year-long Look at Cultural
Diversity
The Levine Museum of the New South in Charlotte, NC, is presenting the exhibit, Changing Places, a year-long exhibit project and the most ambitious initiative since the museum's founding. The exhibit is a multi-part project exploring how people in the Charlotte region are dealing with the growing cultural diversity and change created by the influx of newcomers from across the US and around the globe. The exhibition will be on display through Feb. 28, 2010.
The heart of the project is an exhibit, titled Changing Places: From Black and White to Technicolor.® Within it, guests encounter stories from new arrivals, explore new and longtime traditions, find historical examples of things "done before," are challenged to push past stereotypes, respond to questions about home and community and participate in a number of other interactive experiences.
One of the experiences features a cutting edge technology, called "video talkback." Exhibit visitors are invited to enter a video booth and respond to questions and the exhibit. The responses are recorded, and will later be incorporated into the exhibit, so that it becomes an ever changing conversation and experience.
The exhibit is organized into 5 main environments, each one addressing a different theme. In "What do I keep, what do I change?" guests visitors discover how people are adapting, maintaining, modifying cultural traditions. The section "What did you say?" explores the many communication barriers, with interactives demonstrating the challenges beyond language. In "Selling a taste of home" visitors learn about the long history of entrepreneurism in our region and the cultural influences in goods and stores now found here. The section "Getting past us and them" asks visitors to consider stereotypes, with videos sharing personal stories from students. The final section, titled "Working together" presents different stories of how people are bridging cultural differences.
In the center of the exhibit space, a park-like setting includes benches, a break dance area, hopscotch, a community bulletin board and a picnic table with "recipes for conversation" inviting visitors to come together and share stories with each other.
In partnership with Education Sponsor UNC Charlotte, the Museum is hosting a monthly series of community conversations titled, Changing TimesChanging Minds. Presented the 3rd Wed. evening of each month, it features a range of speakers from the community and the university, and covers topics such as growth and sustainability, religious diversity, affordable housing, and LGBT Charlotteans. Additional related programs and other community days will be presented by the Museum throughout the year. Check with the Museum about scheduled programming.
Developed by Levine Museum of the New South, the exhibit team is comprised of: curator Dr. Pamela Grundy, assistant curator Dr. Tom Hanchett, nationally renowned exhibit developer Darcie Fohrman, who worked with the Museum on Courage, and multimedia developer Brad Larson, who is recognized internationally as one of the top developers of multimedia for family audiences. Other contributors include: film production company Emulsion Arts, photographer Nancy Pierce, exhibit production house Studio Displays, documentary film producer WTVI, and language advisors Choice Translating.
Changing Places has been made possible thanks to support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Institute for Museum and Library Services, Foundation for the Carolinas, and most recently, grants for the project website from the North Carolina Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. Other support comes from presenting sponsor Goodrich, education sponsor UNC Charlotte, The Charlotte Observer and Crosland, Inc.
For further information
check our NC Institutional Gallery listings, contact Ashley S.
Thurmond at 704/333-1887 ext. 242 or visit (www.museumofthenewsouth.org).
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc. Copyright© 2009 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts Online, Copyright© 2009 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.