Making a Museum: Journey from a “Cool Project” to a Museum defined by Dynamic Preservation
This blog is by Sam McKelvey, M.A. in History 2010.
As I sit in my office overlooking the historic fields of Menokin in Virginia’s Northern Neck, my mind wanders. It’s been a long road, full of sharp turns leading from graduation day at VCU in 2010, when I earned an MA in History, to where I am today as Executive Director of a museum on the cusp of something groundbreaking.
As many history undergraduates can attest, the road to full time and meaningful employment can be a long one. More than once I looked at the mountains of un-answered museum applications and almost gave up. Heeding the recommendation to go back to graduate school was daunting. Would I have time with a new family and two part-time jobs taking up the majority of my waking (and non-waking) hours? Plus, I was already well-versed in museum work; an accomplished undergrad, a resume full of part time jobs and multiple internships. How much would a graduate degree from VCU really benefit me? Well it turns out, the decision to attend VCU would be the catalyst that led me to where I am today.
VCU’s history graduate program helped me become an effective museum communicator. It gave me the skills necessary to create meaningful dialog with others on historical topics and the role of public history as viewed through modern lenses. It also seeded in me a burning belief that museums could transform a community. Turns out, I would rely on all of these skills upon taking the leadership reins at Menokin in the fall of 2016.
Menokin, the ruined home and landscape of Francis Lightfoot Lee, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, had become known for one thing in our close knit public history community; an amazingly cool project in the middle of nowhere. The “Glass House Project” was born in 2011. The revolutionary plan aimed to stabilize and protect what existed of the ruined Georgian stone home not through a traditional masonry stabilization, but instead by completing the missing walls and roof sections with structural glass and steel. Like many who visited the ruin before me, I was hooked on the “cool factor “of this radical new way to preserve a house. This specific preservation technique had never been done before in the United States, and better yet, they were looking for someone to lead the project! I was hired and took to the work quickly, unaware at the time how much needed to be done to make this contemporary preservation project a reality.
It was just a few months into my new position that Menokin received word from federal grantor Institute of Museum and Library Services that we would not receive a grant to support the project. Why? IMLS reported that while interesting, nowhere in the application did we explain why Menokin chose the unique preservation approach it was creating. For what purpose is the glass? What is Menokin trying to show? What are the takeaways that Menokin hopes visitors glean? What is our mission? It was a wakeup call that somewhere along our journey, Menokin had taken a few wrong turns. Menokin was working for the project, and not for the museum.
We needed a course correction. Though how would we do that without a central shared purpose? Without that clear mission, every staff member, trustee and stakeholder had a different reason for coming to Menokin and certainly a differing view on its future. The communication skills fostered during my time in the VCUHistory program allowed me to navigate these turbulent waters for the next two years. Individual meetings, intense trustee ideation sessions, and more than one board vote later, we have a much more centered message.
Through the lens of what was built, Menokin uses dynamic preservation to connect modern audiences to the past. The ruin itself is our number one artifact. The house, never upgraded or modernized in any way, allows us to explore the deconstructed original elements of a colonial house in parts. We are shifting the paradigm of focusing on who lived there to a contemporary lens of how and why did it get here. The ruined plantation allows us to explore the human record, the building of an American idea of a Republic and of course the realities of that formed Republic through what still remains- a continuum of stories that we are as much part of today, as are the former owners and enslaved laborers from the past. The glass house project is the embodiment of what we call “dynamic preservation.” We define it as a way to preserve and protect the ruin as it remains, while still allowing for new stories to be written into its history as we move forward into the future.
The idea of dynamic preservation also lives beyond the ruin. Standing in a field near our visitor center is our Menokin Remembrance Structure. In May 2018 it was built by historic preservation students that attended our hands on workshop that demonstrated historic building construction and preservation technology. These students not only learned technical techniques, but were also inspired to stretch the boundaries of what preservation can be. This structure stands tall in our narrative, preserving the memory of the enslaved laborers in the exact location where they struggled to keep their families together all while overlooking the exact fields they worked (still growing corn and wheat today). Its mesh translucent siding is illuminated by solar lighting at night, creating a shining memorial to the more than 250 enslaved individuals that toiled at Menokin. The temporary nature of the Remembrance Structure, another illustration of our principle of dynamic preservation, evokes the emotion necessary for future visitors to confront the past and to examine the foundations of their own ideologies, and won an American Institute for Architects Virginia 2018 Award for Excellence in Architecture.
Though we have accomplished quite a bit over the last few years, Menokin is still a blank slate. We have so much left to do to make it a living, thriving site. Earlier this morning, the first identified descendants of Menokin’s enslaved laborers visited the site. The emotion of that meeting was palpable, and it both affirmed and ignited our passion to do more. I see this meeting as a testimony to our vision of dynamic preservation. With their help, we are learning more about the vibrant history here at Menokin. This shared history is bringing different branches of their family together and cultivating a more complete identify for both them and our community. It’s the tip of the iceberg of what lays in the future for Menokin. I am continuously inspired by what museums and communities can create together and thanks to VCU’s graduate program I feel ready to make it a reality.
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