A People's History of Brooklyn

FAIN: GE-271501-20

Brooklyn Public Library (Brooklyn, NY 11238-5600)
Deborah F. Schwartz (Project Director: January 2020 to July 2022)
Heather Malin (Project Director: July 2022 to March 2024)
Dominique Jean-Louis (Project Director: March 2024 to present)

Planning of a permanent, immersive exhibition on the history of Brooklyn, utilizing unused spaces in the museum’s historic building.

Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS) seeks a $75,000 Public Humanities Projects Planning Grant to support concept design, formative evaluation, research, and scholarly honoraria for its newest public history project, A People’s History of Brooklyn. This new building-wide, multi-floor public history initiative will revolutionize the visitor experience within BHS’s historic headquarters in Brooklyn Heights, and for the first time in the building’s nearly 140-year history, fully activate the space that houses our world-renowned collections in service of BHS’s mission—to tell Brooklyn’s diverse history and utilize Brooklyn’s past to understand its present. Imagined as a constellation of interpretive experiences, project components will feature innovative permanent installations that incorporate BHS’s collections, including newly processed and conserved artifacts; immersive audio experiences; and an introductory film.