The Illinois State Museum in Springfield is setting its sights on how to retain the historical impact of the new coronavirus. Previous planned exhibits and events have been canceled as a result of efforts to mitigate the spread of the virus. But the museum is forging ahead in a new direction.
“We want to hear from people. We want to be able to collect and understand what people are doing during this moment,” said Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko, the museum’s director. “It’s not a pleasant moment in time. But we do feel a great opportunity and a responsibility to pay attention and to make sure we record this historical moment.”
While Catlin-Legutko is still relatively new to the post – she took over eight months ago – she said it’s clear that others on staff have experience keeping up the museum’s mission while its doors are closed to the public. It was shuttered for nine months as a result of the state’s budget impasse under Gov. Bruce Rauner, before reopening in 2016.
During earlier meetings to talk about working from home, “There were moments of levity when the staff was like, well, we’ve seen this before, we know how to do this,” said Catlin-Legutko. “There was definitely a footprint of how to keep the information going,” she said. “We were able to ramp up our social media presence real fast.”
Erika Holst is the museum’s curator of history. “In a normal world, I oversee and shape the history collections,” she said. “Obviously, it’s changed in recent weeks.” Obtaining physical objects is on hold, and now the focus is on digital platforms. For example, Holst was putting together an exhibition about Illinois fashion in the 19th century. It was a week from opening before the museum closed its doors to the public.
Holst has reoriented the focus of the exhibit and blogged about the dresses that correspond with people who lived through previous pandemics and outbreaks, such as a dress worn by a woman “who lived through a cholera outbreak.”
Collecting COVID-19 stories
Holst is also working on a new collection. As a release explains, the museum is seeking “personal stories, written works, artwork, photos or photos of objects from the people of Illinois to document life during the pandemic.” Holst said, “We want to preserve this for posterity. And so, we will be storing high-resolution files in perpetuity at the museum, we’re also planning to upload them to the Illinois Digital Archives, so they can be broadly accessible to the people of Illinois.” She said in this moment, there is renewed interest in previous examples of outbreaks, such as in 1918 when a strain of flu killed millions of people worldwide and hundreds of thousands in the U.S.
“In the long term, we’re hoping that the material that we’re collecting becomes that source of information and inspiration to future generations,” said Holst.
She said so far entries have “run the gamut.”
Photos of chalked messages from kids thanking first responders. Photos of relatives visiting each other through the window to maintain distance. Cakes made to look like toilet paper rolls, being sold at the grocery store. “It really speaks to the experience we’re all in, there’s so many emotions,” said Holst.
Residents are encouraged to continue to send in their writings, stories, photographs and artworks.
“One of our main goals after reopening from the (budget impasse) closure was always to boost our digital presence and our online engagement, because it’s a digital world in the 21st century. So this is obviously accelerating that,” said Holst. “I don’t think it’s something we’ll back off on, when the world goes back to normal,” she said. “Hopefully, it’ll be a nice compliment.”
Director Catlin-Legutko agrees that the increasing focus on digital is part of what’s needed in the long run to help spread the message around the state of what it means to live in Illinois. Her top priority is to lead the museum in a way that is “values-driven.” She explains that as “being an inclusive museum, a museum that listens to our audiences, and the people that we’re not connecting with and understanding why.” Catlin-Legutko wants various demographics to see their stories represented at the state museum.
The new COVID-19 stories project is a way the museum is making use of connection though the web, while seeking to include stories from those from all walks of life. You can participate by following the directions at: tinyurl.com/v983puk
You can contact Rachel Otwell at [email protected].