THREADS OF FEELING
EXHIBIT TEXT & DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT
Threads of Feeling is a textile and history exhibit for which I contributed exhibit text and designed digital engagement during its residency at the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg in 2014.
Threads of Feeling is an exhibit of the textile tokens left with orphaned children at London’s Foundling Hospital in the 18th century, loaned by The Foundling Museum in London to the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum in the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation for a temporary exhibit in 2014.
During my time at the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg, I worked primarily with the Education Department and was given the opportunity to contribute wall text about the connections between London’s Foundling Hospital and Colonial Williamsburg through the Hospital’s founder and patron, William Coram. I also designed a way for visitors to process and share their thoughts regarding the emotionally charged exhibit content through technology.
The opportunity to contribute to an exhibit was new and exceptionally valuable to my further career in museums. This experience allowed me to work closely with the Education, Exhibit Design, and Curatorial departments as I drafted and finalized the text for prominent placement in the exhibit.
In developing the exhibit text, I exercised thorough research skills and gained crucial skills and experience writing for diverse museum audiences. This involved multiple drafts of text, review from several different departments, and input regarding text placement and design.
Upon reflecting with my colleagues about the emotional weight of the exhibit and the many possible reactions visitors may have to its sensitive content, I recognized the need for an outlet for those potential emotions. Dovetailed with another project I was working on involving adapting an existing audio tour to more accessible QR Codes, I created a moderated blog to which visitors could contribute their reactions to the exhibit. The blog was displayed live inside the exhibit along with a panel instructing how to contribute to the blog and the importance of sharing our individual stories.
This experience was my foray into the world of digital engagement in museums, which remains a vital aspect of my career today.
