Give us Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses….or Not:A New Model for Civic Dialogue Within and Beyond the Gallery Walls

Thursday, April 7, 7:00 p.m.

Yeshiva University Museum at the Center for Jewish History 15 West 16th Street, NYC

Is immigration a topic that should be tackled in a museum? Explore the role of museums and other public forums for navigating our nation’s conflicting narratives on who can be an American and who gets to decide. The panel, facilitated by curator Dr. Suzanne Seriff, includes: David Gonzalez, The New York Times; Virginia Yans-Mclaughlin, Rutgers; Dr. Jack Tchen, New York University, Co-founder Museum of the Chinese in America; Annie Polland, Lower East Side Tenement Museum

RSVP by April 5 to programs@yum.cjh.org or (212) 294-8330, ext 8816. Produced by The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum, Yeshiva University Museum, American Jewish Historical Society, and Center for Jewish History.

 

 

Exhibit Tours

Friday, April 8, 9:30 a.m.

Saturday, April 9, 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Curator Dr. Suzanne Seriff will lead facilitated tours of Forgotten Gateway. Ellis Island visitors will learn firsthand about the “behind the scenes” challenges and rewards of rooting a historic exhibit on immigration in ongoing community collaborations and dialogue between contemporary immigrants and descendants.

 

 

When Community Engagement Gets Messy: A View from the Inside Out

Friday, April 8, 3 p.m.

New York University Performance Studies Studio, Room #612 721 Broadway, 6th Floor, NYC

Community engagement” has become the buzzword of 21st century museums seeking creative ways of crafting exhibits and programs that engage their constituent communities. While the charge seems straightforward enough, both the process and the results can be messier than one bargained for. Dr. Suzanne Seriff presents the challenges and rewards from her most recent project, an exhibit on immigration that was based on more than five years of community dialogue between contemporary immigrants and descendants of 19th and early 20th century immigrants. Co-presented by the NYU Performance Studies Department and Program in Museum Studies

Image Credits

Credits For All Images

Upcoming Events Page Background


From Left to Right

  1. Image: Jewish Immigrants at the North German Lloyd wharf in Galveston, July 1, 1907.
    Credit: Courtesy UTSA’s Institute of Texan Culture, 073–0940, San Antonio. Courtesy Temple Bnai Israel.
  2. Image: Kitty Henderson.
    Credit: Courtesy UTSA’s Institute of Texan Cultures, 077–0101, San Antonio. Loaned by Lucile Foley.
  3. Image: Esrael Danzinger and his brother–in–law Samuel Kestenberg, ca. 1913.
    Credit: Courtesy Elaine Heller, Houston.
  4. Image: Max and Malka Siegel family.
    Credit: Courtesy Zella Sobel, Dallas.