September 2008 - November 2009
The final project utilizes the themes of opportunity, families and children, and leisure and cultural life to tell the story of the people who came to Holyoke and created a new life and community. Creating Holyoke’s total budget of $692,970 will allow Wistariahurst Museum and partner organizations to finalize collaboration with humanities scholars and advisers, finish design and fabrication of long term museum exhibits in three locations, install walking/driving tour panels and way finding signs, develop teacher guides and curriculum materials, develop a website portal, and implement community programs in the humanities.
The lead component of the final project includes simultaneous exhibits at three sites:
1) Holyoke Heritage State Park will provide the introductory exhibit on opportunity and industry;
2) The Children’s Museum at Holyoke will provide a hands-on exhibit and activities on families and children and;
3) Exhibits at Wistariahurst Museum will explore the recreational and cultural activities of Holyoke’s immigrants and migrants.
Accompanying programs will include, theater productions, walking and driving tours of the city, teacher’s professional development workshops, school curriculum programs, adult and youth programs, and free standing exhibit panels will be placed at significant historical sites throughout the city.
Programming events will include Holyoke’s Writing Project, a community based compilation of writings based on local experiences and family histories. A scholarly publication, with contributions from area five-college scholars on the themes of industry, the survival of cultures and traditions and race and identity issues, will be produced for the second year of the implementation phase.
We are seeking $195,948 to provide matching funds for the final phase of the project. Together with the $399,950 we have received from the National Endowment for Humanities Grant, and the in-kind services our partners are providing, we will have the resources to create 1) Permanent exhibits at Holyoke Heritage State Park, The Children’s Museum at Holyoke and Wistariahurst Museum, 2) City-wide programming, including mural projects and oral history interviews, 3) Site-based exhibit panels with driving and walking tours, 4) Signage to guide visitors to and through the city, 5) Creating Holyoke Institute professional development workshop for educators, 6) Online resource that creates a portal for the history of Holyoke, school curriculum guides and primary source documents (7) WGBY documentary on the themes of Creating Holyoke. Creating Holyoke has very real potential to increase both visibility and tourism to the City of Holyoke.
Holyoke is a city with a rich and unique industrial past that has a vital and growing arts community. Understanding the correlation between arts, tourism, and economic growth in a creative economy we seek to promote attractions and events within the City with the goal of raising public awareness and attracting audiences. Creating Holyoke will foster a positive image and promote the broad spectrum of cultural, historical, sites, events and attractions available in Holyoke to potential visitors.
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March 2007 – January 2008
In March 2007, Wistariahurst and her partners received a $45,000 prestigious We The People National Endowment for Humanities Planning Grant to further develop a city-wide Exhibit Plan on immigration to Holyoke.
We have hired a market research firm and an exhibit design firm and partners continue to work on fine tuning professional development workshops, community forums, and pilot testing of programs like round table discussions, teaching tools, exhibit themes and ideas for murals throughout the city.During this phase, we conducted market research, finalized exhibit design planning documents and programming concepts, developed fundraising plans, and formalized partner relationships for final project implementation.
]]>April 2006-January 2007
Wistariahurst Museum, Enchanted Circle Theater, Holyoke Heritage State Park, The Children’s Museum and the Holyoke History Room at the Holyoke Public Library secured a National Endowment for the Humanities Consultation Grant for $10,000 to explore the city’s complex and fascinating history with the intention of letting it speak to today’s community. The National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent grant-making agency of the United States government dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities, and they fully funded our project, calling it “impressive” and “laudable.”
Consultants intimately involved in the project include: Ted Belsky Ed.D., professor emeritus of American International College with 20 years as Director of the Oral History Program, Ginetta E.B. Candelario Ph.D., Associate Professor in Sociology and Latin American & Latina/o Studies at Smith College, Daniel Czitrom Ph.D., Professor of History at Mount Holyoke College, Orlando Isaza, former Assistant to the President on Special Projects at Holyoke Community College, Bruce Laurie, Ph.D., Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, M. Sue Thrasher, Ed.D., Coordinator of the Five College Public School Partnership for Five Colleges, Inc., Susan Fliss, Ph.D., Dartmouth College, and Marilyn Weiss Cruickshank, Museum Education Consultant.
Immigrants and migrants created Holyoke’s community. In this city of multiple economies, we see that in many ways, Holyoke is an industrial, working class city that went through the same processes as other cities nationwide. Holyoke, however, is unique in that it has re-invented itself each time an industry failed or a new group of immigrants or migrants entered the city. For over 150 years, Holyoke has retained its identity as a gateway city for immigrants, migrants and newcomers to begin new opportunities and make a better life for themselves. Creating Holyoke explores the themes of opportunity, family, religion, culture and leisure as an expression of immigrant and migrant lives.The project will also integrate school programming based on local history strands of the Massachusetts state-wide curriculum. These sites with exhibits will become locations of resources for local students, and scholars in the Five College area.
Project partners traveled to Lowell, MA, Lawrence, MA, Manchester, NH, Salem MA, Boston, MA, Washington D.C., New Bedford, MA, Providence, RI, and Historic Carlisle, PA to learn more about other collaborative efforts, exhibits on industrial history, economic development strategies and walking and driving tours.