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FRANKLIN —
There are opportunities for everyone who wants to be involved in the upcoming Smithsonian Institute traveling exhibit, and interested persons heard about them Monday night during an informational meeting at the Miners Hall Museum in the Franklin Community Center and Heritage Museum.
The exhibit, titled “The Way We Worked,” is scheduled for May 11-June 23, 2013, at the facility. Plans are to have the hall open all seven days each week during the exhibit.
“The opportunity for a Smithsonian exhibit came up and we are one of only six sites in Kansas to get it,” noted Linda Grilz, Miners Hall Museum board president. “That escalated plans for our museum. We may have the cart before the horse, but the horse is catching up.”
She introduced Phyllis Bitner and Debby Close, co-chairmen in charge of arrangements for the exhibit.
Bitner said that she and Close had recently attended a meeting in Topeka with others who will be hosting the exhibit.
“A representative from the Smithsonian was present,” Bitner said. “They told us it was going to be a working lunch. Had they told us all that first, it would have scared a lot of us away. Debby and I are both talkers, but we were exhausted and barely spoke all the way home.”
For one thing, “The Way We Worked,” a new exhibit touring for the first time, is expected to draw as many as 300 visitors a day.
“When we heard that, we started to wonder, who’s going to pick up the trash, who’s going to wipe fingerprints off the glass display cases, who’s going to replenish paper products in the restrooms,” Bitner said.
Numerous volunteers will be needed for those and other chores. Docents will be needed to take tour groups through, though people will also be able to go through on their own.
“This is going to be a highly interactive exhibit,” Bitner said.
Included will be large graphics, artifacts, work clothing, audio/visual elements, films and interactive components. They will be arriving in Franklin in crates weighing between 177 and 291 pounds.
“Who’s going to unload them and where are we going to put those crates?” Bitner asked.
She said there would be volunteer opportunities throughout the upcoming year to prepare for the visit, then during the six weeks that “The Way We Worked” is in Franklin.
“If you want to volunteer for an hour or for the whole six weeks, we can use you,” Bitner said.
Volunteers aren’t the only thing needed.
There are opportunities for everyone who wants to be involved in the upcoming Smithsonian Institute traveling exhibit, and interested persons heard about them Monday night during an informational meeting at the Miners Hall Museum in the Franklin Community Center and Heritage Museum.
The exhibit, titled “The Way We Worked,” is scheduled for May 11-June 23, 2013, at the facility. Plans are to have the hall open all seven days each week during the exhibit.
“The opportunity for a Smithsonian exhibit came up and we are one of only six sites in Kansas to get it,” noted Linda Grilz, Miners Hall Museum board president. “That escalated plans for our museum. We may have the cart before the horse, but the horse is catching up.”
She introduced Phyllis Bitner and Debby Close, co-chairmen in charge of arrangements for the exhibit.
Bitner said that she and Close had recently attended a meeting in Topeka with others who will be hosting the exhibit.
“A representative from the Smithsonian was present,” Bitner said. “They told us it was going to be a working lunch. Had they told us all that first, it would have scared a lot of us away. Debby and I are both talkers, but we were exhausted and barely spoke all the way home.”
For one thing, “The Way We Worked,” a new exhibit touring for the first time, is expected to draw as many as 300 visitors a day.
“When we heard that, we started to wonder, who’s going to pick up the trash, who’s going to wipe fingerprints off the glass display cases, who’s going to replenish paper products in the restrooms,” Bitner said.
Numerous volunteers will be needed for those and other chores. Docents will be needed to take tour groups through, though people will also be able to go through on their own.
“This is going to be a highly interactive exhibit,” Bitner said.
Included will be large graphics, artifacts, work clothing, audio/visual elements, films and interactive components. They will be arriving in Franklin in crates weighing between 177 and 291 pounds.
“Who’s going to unload them and where are we going to put those crates?” Bitner asked.
She said there would be volunteer opportunities throughout the upcoming year to prepare for the visit, then during the six weeks that “The Way We Worked” is in Franklin.
“If you want to volunteer for an hour or for the whole six weeks, we can use you,” Bitner said.
Volunteers aren’t the only thing needed.
“Our local story is critical to this, and we definitely think we have a good story to tell,” Bitner said.
The Miners Hall Museum, dedicated to the mining heritage of the Crawford and Cherokee County coal field, will handle mining, along with one of the area’s most popular attractions.
“We need to have a companion exhibit here, and we’re very happy that Big Brutus has agreed to be our companion exhibit,” Bitner said. “We would like to have 12 monthly exhibits leading up to the Smithsonian, starting May 2012, on the railroads, medical field, education and other businesses.”
Close said that they hope local libraries and schools will get involved.
“We’re looking to libraries to put it out front,” she said.
Close noted that free teachers guides and lesson plans are available to prepare students for the exhibit. Youngsters are also urged to write essays or create artwork related to work, such as work done by their parents or grandparents.
“We will see that outstanding work is displayed,” Close said.
One enthusiastic teacher is Linda Knoll, gifted educator, who happens to be a member of the Miners Hall Museum board and an expert on the Amazon Army, a group of miners’ wives, sisters, daughters and sweethearts who marched to get improved working conditions and salaries for their men.
Several years ago she wrote a dramatic piece centered around the Amazon Army, and said she would love to have students present it in conjunction with the exhibit, but isn’t sure that a venue could be found.
“I do believe that we can do some vignette pieces pulled from the play, and I’d like to do something with art and music as well,” Knoll said.
The Franklin center is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. five days a week, and registration cards are available for anyone wishing to volunteer to aid with the exhibit. Telephone number is 620-347-4220.
