In the summer of 2019, I began my journey as the Educational Outreach and Education Manager at the Wayne County Historical Museum after graduating from Earlham's Master of Education Program. Since then, I have gained fantastic experience in museum education.
Education
Kids Take Over the Museum
The Wayne County Historical Museum Partners with the LOGOS program at Hibbard Elementary School each year. 3rd and 4th-grade students visit the museum at the beginning of the year for a guided tour and to get their creative juices flowing. Each student chooses an exhibit or object in the museum that they were passionate about researching—the student returns in about six weeks to present to their adults and museum staff. Many of the students choose to dress for the occasion. Below are photos from one of these events!
Museum in a Box
One of my first tasks as the Educational Outreach and Programs Manager at the Wayne County Historical Museum was creating a set of four traveling trunks, each providing in-depth, hands-on learning for grade school students in the Wayne County Area and Beyond. The themes of the four trunks were First People Indiana, The Victorian Age-WWII, Ancient Egypt, and World Cultures. One aspect of creating these boxes was assisting in writing a grant to cover expenses and keeping a detailed budget. Each of the trunks aligned with Indiana State Standards to assist hard-working educators. I had to research and write background information on each of the trunks. Below you will find photographs of museum in a box materials as well as the poster I created for promotional materials
Julia Meek-Gaar Adventure Camp
I built on a developed Archeology Camp to teach kids how artifacts end up in museums, including through archaeology. Campers get inside views of collections, exhibits, and excavations. This hands-on, immersive camp ran every year, and we had many campers come back multiple summers because of how much they learned and enjoyed this summer camp. Below you will find pictures of campers, their creations and the graphic used in promotional materials. I created all the graphic materials for the various programs at Wayne County Historical Museum
Tales From the Departed
Each October, on the 1st Saturday, the Wayne County Historical Museum and Morrisson-Reeves Library hosts this event that showcases Richmond's past. Each year, a different section of the cemetery is highlighted, stories of their character's lives. This event is a great way to connect to local history and the importance of Richmond, Indiana. Below is the graphic I created for one year of tales as well as picture of the Tales from the Departed event at Earlham Cemetery
Museum of Broken Relationships
In the Fall of 2023, the Indiana University-Indianapolis Museum Education class partnered with the Museum of Broken Relationships to create educational programming to go along with MBRs mission: "Unlike 'destructive' self-help instructions for recovery from grief and loss, the Museum offers the chance to overcome an emotional collapse through creativity - by contributing to its universal collection (Museum of Broken Relationships, n.d.) ." I worked with two other students on a program intended for teens called Creating Activists: Exploring Social Justice Through Art.
Discover Indiana
In the Fall semester of 2024, I wrote an article for Discover Indiana, part of a series called Cities of the Dead: Indianapolis Cemeteries. My article focused on Greenlawn Cemetery after it shut down (as a cemetery), its journey into obscurity, and those left behind after city officials transferred some residents to City Hill Cemetery. A majority of the loved ones left behind were of African American descent, and the city's obsession with the expansion of the old cemetery has recently brought all these issues to the forefront of Indianapolis.