shaping exhibition development around community perspectives

Shaping Exhibition Development

Zachary Paul Levine, Curator at Yeshiva University Museum

Artists, Curators, and Educators Engaging Communities

Around Community Perspectives Reaching

Deeper –

Why the Eruv? (or What the heck is an Eruv and who cares?)

• An eruv is a ritual enclosure for the Sabbath

• Integrate religious and technical creativity

• Eruv history closely tied to Jewish history

• Gaining academic interest

• Artists working around the concept of eruv

Get Your A-TeamAssembled an Advisory Board of Scholars

• Confounds the most knowledgeable

• Controversial, especially in New York

• Hundreds of thousands of Jews rely on community eruvs

The Panel’s Conclusions:

• Growing interest popularly

At the Center

These issues are especially important to Orthodox Jews in particular

• Nobody else uses an eruv (no kidding!)

• NOT A LOOPHOLE! Illiteracy around Eruv in Jewish legal tradition

• Recent data on composition of Orthodox Jewish community

• Gender dynamics

• Field of Analysis: NYC

On a (Kashered) Silver Platter

•Defined the focus: Eruv and Jewish Community in New York

In other Words … here’s your audience:

• Defined the Audience: Several Hundred Thousand Orthodox Jews

Primary Targeted Communities:

• Eruv Enthusiasts (and builders)

• Jewish Schools• Synagogue Communities

Target: Big Apple Orthodox Jews

Primary Targeted Communities:

• Eruv Enthusiasts (and builders)

• Jewish Schools• Synagogue Communities

• Cultivate awareness about the exhibition • Enhance the museum’s profile• Acquire a working database of community contacts

Early Outreach Goals

Target: Big Apple Orthodox Jews

Museum Educators• Know who to call in the schools

• Align exhibition with school needs

•Generate buzz about the exhibition among educators

Putting Out the Call

Education’s Role

Contact Influential Educators and Rabbis• Consultations

• Program Design and Planning

• Networking

Contact Influential Educators and Rabbis• Consultations

• Program Design and Planning

• Networking

Interpret Communal Needs

• Identify objects

• Highlight objects

• Identify Essential Lessons

Education’s Role

Putting Out the Call

• Knows people who make eruvs

• Understand the historical and practical dimensions

•Make Connections

Eruv Scholars (Rabbis, Enthusiasts, Others)

• What do people know and not know?

• Life before eruvs

• Impact on women, children, and the infirm

Gathering Information

Getting Communal Voices - Survey

• Stories

• Interviews with eruv creators • Stories about controversies

•Maintaining eruvs

Leaders – Films

• Finding objects

•What do people know and not know?

• Life before eruvs• Impact on women, children, and the infirm

Gathering Information

Getting Communal Voices - Survey

• Stories

•Discovered stories about eruv history in NYC• Uncovered objects (eruv gates on telephone poles)•Made connections with leaders and their communities

Gathering Information

Effects

•On the eruv in general (using lasers!) • Eruv history in NYC (Thousands of strings)• Eruv present in NYC

The Artists

Art Pieces on the Eruv

Meeting Expectations?

•Greater relevance for schools

• Better alignment with programs (youth and adult)

• Education brought into interpretative planning

Education Department’s Role – Success

• Initially, attracted students

• Art pieces enhanced didactic quality

Meeting Expectations?

• Added community voices into the exhibition• Tightened the narrative’s argument from the beginning• Placed the narrative in the NYC area (artifacts and interactive content)

Community Awareness – Success

Meeting Expectations?

• Community buzz – Did not appear to last• Community ambassadors (synagogues, experts) – Did not advocate• Limited press attention

Unfulfilled Expectations – Limited Press and Few Visitors

• External factors

Meeting Expectations?

• Hurricane Sandy

• Bus Strike

•Maybe too Jewish?

Caveat – External Factors

And Beyond…

• Benefits of cooperation between curatorial and education departments

• Value of applying community input to interpretative planning

Lessons Learned

• Challenging to expect participants to act as ambassadors