Exhibit Plan ~ “A Place for the People”

"Tell me where you're from, and I'll tell you who you are."
--Wallace Stegner

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

Vendors and Educational Eshibits at CSWM Waterfowl Weekend 2002
photo: CSWM

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.

The first floor exhibit will end in the Living Room. This area will be the "crossroads" of the themes of past, present and future where the people of today tell the stories of yesterday to tomorrow's generations. It will be where visitors of all ages will be encouraged to learn and see more by going

Quilts and Community Exhibits at CSWM Waterfowl Weekend, 2000
photo: CSWM

upstairs (the elevator opens here) to the community exhibits and video on the second floor, to the Lookout Tower, to on-going programs and demonstrations in the Education Hall, and/or to outdoor learning experiences in the Boat House or around Willow Pond.

The library will offer researchers, historians, folklorists and others a broad collection of books and materials on local history, waterfowling traditions (carving, hunting and art), ornithology, reference materials for artists and all topics relating to the museum's mission. The reading room will house the public collection of oral histories, manuscripts, transcripts and tapes of interviews, and old photographs for historical research.

SECOND FLOOR AND LOOKOUT TOWER: Down East Origins and Community Scrapbook This is the area of permanent and changing exhibits where visitors will learn about the natural and geological history of Core Sound and the earliest human inhabitants of the area-—the

Davis Community Display
photo: CSWM

Native Americans who hunted and fished the region for many generations before white settlers arrived. On this floor, individual Down East communities-descendants of English settlers, African-Americans and Native Americans—will tell their own stories, not thematically (as on the first floor) but through artifacts, photos, documents, etc. Exhibit space will be flexible. In this area, community involvement will be the chief objective. This involvement will be achieved by encouraging local communities to research, plan, collect and present their stories through artifacts, documents, photographs and other primary source materials. It is also the area where special theme

Storytelling with local historians Rodney Kemp, Bill Murrell and friends at Ca'e Banks Day, April 2001
photo: CSWM

exhibits will be presented within the context of community history: for example, such themes could include baseball, the Great Depression, the hurricane of 1933, the Landing, African Americans and the menhaden fishery, women's roles in commercial fishing, World War II. Communities and individuals will be trained in preserving their histories and will be offered a variety of assistance with this work. Communities to be included: Banks Communities - Shackleford Banks and Diamond City, Cape Lookout, Portsmouth Island; Mainland
Communities - Harkers Island and Brown's Island, Straits, Otway, Bettie, Gloucester, Marshallberg, Smyrna, Tusk,

Connie Mason
Storyteller, songwriter performs at Down East Day, Feb. 2001, New Bern
photo: CSWM

Williston, Davis Shore, Davis Ridge, Stacy, Sea Level, Atlantic, Cedar Island (Lola and Roe), Hog Island; and Culturally/Historically-Related Communities of Promise Land, Salter Path, Lukens, South River.

A short video (8-12 minutes) that introduces the visitor to the communities of Core Sound will run at frequent intervals. Visitors will view footage of Down East residents who introduce their communities through descriptions of daily life and significant events. Visitors will hear hunting and fishing narratives, stories about tides, winds, and storms, and descriptions of foodways, and other topics.

The presentation area for the video will also provide space for interpretation and recognition of important landmarks, such as the hunt clubs of Core Sound and for additional displays of artifacts that for many years were elements of Down East waterfowling traditions.

Traveling Exhibitions A designated area for changing (traveling from other museums and institutions as well as local temporary) exhibitions, i.e. decoy collections, local art showings, photography, and other mediums will be included in the second floor gallery.

Lookout Tower From Lookout Tower visitors will view the spectacular expanse of Core Sound in a manner and from a visual perspective that has never before been possible, even for long-time residents. The panorama will include Shell Point, Shackleford and Core Banks, Core and Back Sounds, and Cape Lookout Lighthouse, and many Down East communities. Interpretive panels around the tower walkway will provide geographic, scientific and historic information. Visitors will thereby experience Core Sound with a new appreciation and understanding of the "place" that will compliment and significantly add to their experiences with the museum's exhibits and programs.

HOURS

Exhibit Plan ~ “A Place for the People”