Recent Projects
Bristol History Kids
The History Kids are learning about their community’s historic sites, history, and museum artifacts. They are dedicated volunteers and are in training to become the next generation of docents and museum directors. These students have a wonderful time discovering the local drama of times past and the significance of the great events that have made us Americans. The Public Humanities Clinic is helping the history kids to expand to other communities in Rhode Island. We are helping the History Kids’ founder and organizer with writing a pilot grant and with publicity.
Rhode Island Museum of Science and Art
RIMOSA propose to utilize Rhode Islands’ rich resources in the arts and sciences to create a distinctive, highly interactive, informal learning center – the Rhode Island Museum of Science and Art. This museum will be an exciting cultural attraction for people of all ages, as well as an opportunity for students and a resource for teachers. MOSA’s unique, hands-on exhibits and programs will appeal to a wide variety of learning styles and emphasize the tools that both artists and scientists share; curiosity, observation, experimentation and communication. Their mission is first and foremost to awaken curiosity. Intellectual curiosity, if stirred, can lead to a lifelong love of learning. The Public Humanities Clinic has provided ongoing consultation to RIMOSA, space for a board meeting, and gallery space for their first “pop-up exhibition,” opening in February 2010. Learn more about RIMOSA.
Governor Stephen Hopkins House, Providence
The modest home at 15 Hopkins Street contains the stories of Gov. Stephen Hopkins—signer of the Declaration of Independence, statesman, merchant, and Quaker—his wife, Anne, their children, and at least six enslaved persons. The Hopkins house is owned by the State of Rhode Island and has been administered by the National Society of Colonial Dames since 1927. The Public Humanities Clinic provides ongoing advice and consultation to the Colonial Dames on a variety of issues including interpretation and furnishing of the Hopkins House and care of collections and archives. In 2009, a student in the John Nicholas Brown Center’s public humanities program conducted research to augment existing information about the lives of enslaved persons in the house. In 2010, students in a Brown University class will undertake a comprehensive reinterpretation of the site.
Warren Mill Project
A group of individuals, in collaboration with the local preservation society, decided to commemorate the industrial past of Warren, Rhode Island, in the former Samsonite factory building before the site was lost to developers. The Warren Mill project exhibition included a display of photographs, maps and artifacts, oral histories from Warren’s Mills, and a related art installation. The Public Humanities Clinic assisted the group with planning and development of the exhibition and provided advice on design and installation.