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What We Are About - This is Core Sound - Museum History - Gift Shop & Gallery - Core Sound Trees - David's Place - Remembering James - Remembering Jessie Lee Babb Dominique - Remembering David Yeomans - Core Sounder newsletter SUMMER 2007 issue Programs / Outreach - Programming on and off site - Down East Tour Web - Junior Duck Stamp - Upcoming Events - Past Events - Willow Pond - Waterfowl Weekend - Partners Exhibits and Projects - Exhibit Plan      -Introduction - Exhibit Plan      -“Life on Core Sound” - Exhibit Plan      - “A Place for the People” - Jean-Dale Project - Community Scrapbooks - Opening Exhibit Traditional Craftsmen - Folk Heritage Award Winners New Museum Construction We Need Your Help Annual Membership     - CSWM Featured Artists NC License Tag Program          - Application Form Capital Campaign     - 2004 Update & Progress     - Porch Planks     - Core Sound by Firelight     - Mitchell Fulcher      Collector License     - Hunt Club Giving     - Named Giving Opportunities Special Thanks - Volunteers - Partners Learn More - Visit Us - Guest Book - E Mail For more information  contact us at: Core Sound  Waterfowl Museum 1785 Island Road  P.O. Box 556 Harkers Island, NC 28531 Telephone: 252-728-1500   Fax: 252-728-1742 Email: the museum HOURS Mon - Sat 10 - 5, Sun 2 -5

Mission Statement: To establish a facility that will enhance the community, state, and region by creating a resource which brings together the historical, cultural, artistic, environmental, and educational elements needed to preserve the rich waterfowl heritage of eastern North Carolina associated with the Core Sound area.

March 2001, Updated April 2002

Support for this project provided by the NC Arts Council.

EXHIBIT FOCUS: Down East--A Heritage Shaped by Core Sound

The Museum's exhibits will integrate interpretations of the cultural and natural resources of the Core Sound region of North Carolina. They will illustrate how nature has molded the character of the region's people, and how those people have imprinted their character upon the region. The museum's exhibits and the educational programs that accompany them will help visitors directly experience aspects of a lifestyle lived close to and in harmony with nature and with nature's elemental forces.

EXHIBIT OBJECTIVES:

• To convey a strong sense of place

  Carver Roy Willis photo: CSWM

• To allow the people of Core Sound to tell their own story
• To serve the people of Core Sound by collecting and showcasing their histories, traditions, and stories
• To present and sustain living cultural traditions of Core Sound communities using historical, ecological, and folklife resources
• To conserve the natural resources and environments that have shaped Down East culture
• To educate visitors of diverse backgrounds and ages from outside the region by informing them of the natural, human and cultural resources of Core Sound
• To complement the Museum's archives, library, education and outreach programs.

• To integrate cultural and natural resource interpretations within each exhibit area
• To allow each portion of the exhibit to convey its own story but within the context of a larger cultural and environmental narrative
• To present Core Sound's rich waterfowl heritage through a variety of interactive and hands-on experiences
• To use artifacts contributed by community members (rather than reproductions or fabrications) and, when possible, utilize the skills (research, collection, construction) of residents in creating exhibits
• To encourage further learning through related museum programs.

1. The first floor Gallery will consist of the main exhibit, the Living Room, library, and reading room. The museum experience will begin in this Gallery with an emphasis on the present time. The main exhibit will depict the seasonal changes of a year on Core Sound. The Living Room will serve as a gathering place for museum visitors to relax in small groups. They will learn about Core Sound heritage informally by hearing stories or by watching a carver fashion a duck's head with a penknife or a quiltmaker stitching a pattern. The library and reading room will offer research opportunities for students, artists, writers, folklorists and historians.

CSWM Waterfowl Weekend 2001 photos: CSWM

 

2. The second floor Mezzanine area will consist of community exhibits and a video about Core Sound ("Sailing Down East on the Mailboat.") This area will represent the past with displays of historical events, artifacts and people who have contributed to each community's story as well as to the collective history of Core Sound. The second floor will also provide an area for traveling exhibits of decoy collections, waterfowl art, historic exhibitions, photography and other appropriate visiting collections.

CSWM Lookout Tower photo: Mr. Carl Huff

3. In the Education Hall and Outside Exhibits

(including the Lookout Tower, the Willow Pond and trails, and the Boat House) visitors will learn about today's living traditions and the natural resources that sustain them. They will have the chance to continue some of these traditions into the future by

Trudy Lewis demonstrates traditional net-hanging technique for schoolchildren at CSWM Heritage Days, 2001 photo: CSWM

practicing a wide range of crafts and folkways activities (model boat building, knitting nets, quilting, crab pot construction, cooking, singing). Through environmental education programs, visitors will also learn about wildlife habitat protection. This educational component will also reach into the community through schools and groups who will become active participants in the educational programming of the museum and thereby ensure that the natural and cultural resources of the region will be preserved for (and by) future generations.

FIRST FLOOR: This is the interpretative area of the Museum, where the Down East story is told within the structure of a single year.

Entrance and Reception Area In this space visitors will be greeted and prepared for their experiences in the Museum. Interpretative elements of this area will include:

• Artwork in the entranceway depicting natural and cultural icons of Core Sound (Cape Lookout lighthouse, wild horses, waterfowl, the Portsmouth Church steeple, workboats, live oaks, etc.)
• A reception desk staffed by residents of local communities whose heritage is represented and interpreted in the Museum
• Brochures, publications, and information on membership, museum programs and area travel information
• A large map of Down East that defines the region interpreted by the Museum and orients visitors. Map will include topographic features and locate Core Sound communities.

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updated Jan. 9, 2006 by Vision IPD
Original designer: Vanda Lewis & Casey Amspacher