Start Date
18-11-2020 1:30 PM
End Date
18-11-2020 3:00 PM
Type of Work
Poster
Description
Objective: To demonstrate how programming around NLM’s traveling exhibit program can be used to connect and engage with communities outside the medical library.
Methods: The Quillen College of Medicine library hosted NLM’s “From DNA to Beer” and “Graphic Medicine: Ill-Conceived and Well-Drawn” exhibits and developed programming engaging with the university’s arts community, numerous locally owned businesses, and the local agricultural extension office.
Results: Exhibit planning was conducted with community engagement as a chief goal. Events included tours and talks at local craft breweries, trivia night at a downtown brewery, a bread-making workshop from extension agents, a presentation from a visiting national printmaking artist known for work about HIV/AIDS, and movie nights. Events were promoted via the web/social media, local news, and flyers placed at event sites and local comics shops. The planning and hosting of events at local businesses fostered town-gown connections, while arts talks engaged members of the university’s arts community who had not normally intersected with the medical library. Cooperation around complementary arts events also helped strengthen a connection with the university’s main visual arts museum. Overall, more than a thousand people engaged with the exhibits and surrounding programs and events.
Conclusions: Creative planning around NLM traveling exhibits can help forge new relationships with non-traditional partners throughout the community. Concrete examples of engaging events will be provided along with advice for focusing the exhibit planning process on community engagement.
Building Community Through Programming with NLM Traveling Exhibits
Objective: To demonstrate how programming around NLM’s traveling exhibit program can be used to connect and engage with communities outside the medical library.
Methods: The Quillen College of Medicine library hosted NLM’s “From DNA to Beer” and “Graphic Medicine: Ill-Conceived and Well-Drawn” exhibits and developed programming engaging with the university’s arts community, numerous locally owned businesses, and the local agricultural extension office.
Results: Exhibit planning was conducted with community engagement as a chief goal. Events included tours and talks at local craft breweries, trivia night at a downtown brewery, a bread-making workshop from extension agents, a presentation from a visiting national printmaking artist known for work about HIV/AIDS, and movie nights. Events were promoted via the web/social media, local news, and flyers placed at event sites and local comics shops. The planning and hosting of events at local businesses fostered town-gown connections, while arts talks engaged members of the university’s arts community who had not normally intersected with the medical library. Cooperation around complementary arts events also helped strengthen a connection with the university’s main visual arts museum. Overall, more than a thousand people engaged with the exhibits and surrounding programs and events.
Conclusions: Creative planning around NLM traveling exhibits can help forge new relationships with non-traditional partners throughout the community. Concrete examples of engaging events will be provided along with advice for focusing the exhibit planning process on community engagement.