Investigating Where We Live

FAIN: ZH-258494-18

National Building Museum (Washington, DC 20001-2637)
Lauren G. Wilson (Project Director: May 2017 to March 2018)
Theresa A. Esterlund (Project Director: March 2018 to May 2024)

Investigating Where We Live, a museum-centered program in which middle and high school students from the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area examine the people, places, and history that shape their communities.

The National Building Museum has offered Investigating Where We Live since 1996, empowering youth from the Washington metropolitan area to examine the people, places, and history that shape their own communities. Each summer, approximately 35 middle and high school students work together over five weeks (three full days per week) to plan, design, and install an exhibition of professional quality at the Museum. Past programs have focused on urban transformation in historically African-American neighborhoods as in Recapturing Shaw’s Legacy (July 26, 2013–June 8, 2014) and on themes like memorialization as exemplified by New Monuments Revealed (July 25, 2015–June 6, 2016). This program, which is free to students, was honored with the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award in 2013.

Associated Products

For You By Youth: Urban Landscapes Reimagined (Exhibition)
Title: For You By Youth: Urban Landscapes Reimagined
Curator: Investigating Where We Live program
Abstract: Imagine if developers, designers, planners, and city agencies valued youth as stakeholders when it came to creating our outdoor public places—how would they look? With this question in mind, the summer 2019 Investigating Where We Live participants visited D.C. parks and neighborhoods and considered what makes a public space inclusive, accessible, and welcoming. Working with artists, experts in the built environment and museums, and community members, participants designed and installed this exhibition to share their vision for public green space to foster community expression, build confidence in its visitors, and promote sustainability.
Year: 2019
Primary URL: https://www.nbm.org/exhibition/investigating-where-we-live-2019/

A Space for Us (Exhibition)
Title: A Space for Us
Curator: Investigating Where We Live program
Abstract: Why should we look back at history? Who decides whose stories are preserved and shared? What does that have to do with our lives today? Teens in Investigating Where We Live explored those questions and more by taking a closer look at Washington, D.C., in 1968 through the lens of youth experience, and curated an exhibition of their own work that shares their point of view.
Year: 2018
Primary URL: https://www.nbm.org/exhibition/a-space-for-us/

Program Evaluation: Investigating Where We Live (Report)
Title: Program Evaluation: Investigating Where We Live
Author: RK&A
Abstract: This report presents results from a study of Investigating Where We Live (IWWL), conducted by RK&A, Inc. for the National Building Museum (NBM). IWWL is a long-running program that has brought together creative youth from across the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area every summer since 1996 to explore, document, and interpret the local built environment. For this study, RK&A conducted telephone interviews with participants who all have different relationships to the program, both internal and external, to hear a variety of perspectives on the program and its evolution over time. Specifically, RK&A interviewed youth who participated in the program in either summer 2018 or in the previous 3-5 years, NBM staff who have been either directly or indirectly involved in the program, outside stakeholders, and museum peers working in youth programs at other institutions. The purpose of the study is to examine the strengths and challenges related to the program so NBM can use the results to strategically plan for the program’s future. The following summary identifies key findings and presents and discusses trends across participant types. We hope that the information contained herein will help NBM in its decision making regarding the future of the IWWL program.
Date: 12/1/2018
Primary URL Description: This report is attached as an appendix to the National Building Museum's final performance report.
Access Model: Internal report

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