Initial Brainstorming Meeting Re: Public Humanities Group Project

6 October 2009

Present: Krystal, Sara E., Caitlin, Kaitlynne, Elena, Meghan, Adrian, Janet,
Amy A., Bess, Anna, Lucia, Erin; Katheryn, Shana

Next meeting to finalize: Oct. 13, 8p, JNBC

We agreed to move forward with the one major idea that came out of this
meeting, and we spent the time breaking it down as a project and tinkering
with how it would work thematically.

Developing Food on the Move:

Caitlin and Kaitlynne both object to the project being an exhibition.

Janet (proposes contributing to an exhibition at Johnson + Wales).

Adrian mentions that, though this is an exhibition, there would be lots of non-
exhibition related work associated with it. People who are interested in
taking on projects that are not exhibitions can work on public programs. Bess
sees that these could include music, food, storytelling  everything that
went on in a tavern.

Janet is planning to do her practicum at J+W with Richard Guttman on what

she hopes will become a part of the group PH project. There is no existing
interpretation on the tap room from the tavern. J+W has an exhibit outline.
We could have free rein with interpretation in that space and on the adjacent
wall space. Janet also believes that we would have latitude to develop
whatever themes we use into other spaces in the museum.

The tap room is from 1833. J+W acquired it from Mystic Seaport, which
saved it from destruction. Some possibilities for interpretation inside the tap
room are:
- looking @ stagecoach stops in general
- looking at this particular tavern from NH (J+W has v. little info,
though they do have photos from 1930s)
- interpretation of materials, ex. the faux wood grain
- interpretation of the history of food and drink

There is agreement that people would like to go off campus.

In working with J+W, we need to remember their target audience is the

university’s students.

Elena wants to weave in some “choose your own adventure” type element.
This might take place through tracked (color coded) labels or even “roads”
delineated on the floor or in some other place via color. The tracks could
work for broad interests (kids, food and drink, social history, travel
narratives) or involve the visitor taking on a character as he eats and drinks
his way through time on his travels (traveling salesman, trucker, hitchhiker,
etc.). This could extend to the public programs as well.

Caitlin provided an overview of different possibilities for organizing the

project. She went over some past PH projects (Fox Point, Birds and Bees).

Sara broadens the topic of the project as a whole to “Food On the Move” –
the food people eat when traveling / on the road / on road trips (menus,
dishware, social trends – stagecoach, car, airfare, boat). The project would
take the tavern as its point of departure spatially and historically, as one
element within the theme of food on the move. The project would move
forward in time and around other spaces in the museum:
o tavern
o bar
o diner
Kaitlynne sees that the wall space adjacent to the tavern could be used to
develop a timeline that would use important collections of the museum, such
as the steamship menus. Anna sees opportunities to develop a space within
the tap room for kids to play.

Erin:
Food on the move makes it something we can relate to – our national
foodways are on the move.

In thinking about the portion of the project that is not an exhibition, Krystal
wants to involve RIPTA and Caitlin agrees. The project must reach beyond
J+W students, must be accessible in Providence. Perhaps there would be a
capstone event in Kennedy Plaza?  We need to contact Deb Abrhamson
about that.

In thinking about the organization of working groups Bess wonders if we

should
break into groups to manage the project by moment in time or by topic
across time. We’ll sort out roles at the next meeting.

Money

So far, J+W has made no financial commitment to the project. We plan to

discover whether their exhibition budget would finance some of the signage
and interpretation within the museum, leaving the anticipated funding from
the JNBC ($10,000) to finance the public programming.
Next steps

Janet and Sara have offered to start a draft of our initial proposal by Saturday
on a google doc. Everyone must weigh in by Tuesday before the meeting in
order to have their contributions considered for submission to Annie and
Steve.

The important elements for us to include in this initial draft are:

- Thesis statement  goals for J+W, visitors, us
- Our plans and commitments with j+w
- Ideas about potential other partners  RIPTA and more? (how to
move this beyond J+W campus?)
- Target audience (must incl. J+W students)

If you didn’t come to the meeting tonight, and you’re interested in

participating, please join us at the next meeting when we’ll talk about roles.
We anticipate that folks will drop into the project at many points and any and
all help is urgently needed and welcomed.