Rochester women featured in new RMSC exhibition

Listen to this article

Rochester Museum & Science Center will feature more than 200 diverse Rochester and Haudenosaunee women in a new exhibition set to open on Nov. 20.

“The Changemakers: Rochester Women Who Changed the World” is a community-curated exhibition that aims to inspire and empower the community to be changemakers by sharing stories of regional innovators like them.

“This process has been a learning experience for all RMSC staff involved. Working with a diverse group of community members brought to light a multitude of perspectives that enriched the exhibit content and ensured that everyone in the community will be able to see themselves in the exhibit,” said Kathryn Murano Santos, senior director of collections and exhibitions. “I think the resulting exhibit will help shift the dominant cultural narrative — one that excludes and erases women’s accomplishments, and particularly women of color — by making it clear that women of all backgrounds have always made important contributions that impact every aspect of our lives.”

The new exhibition features a number of hands-on interactives, such as a flight simulator made from a decommissioned Cessna plane, and a number of interactive hands-off exhibits which include elements like motion sensors to activate video and audio clips. RMSC also has created several media-based interactives for visitors and will showcase authentic collection objects —many of them on loan from the featured Changemakers — to help illustrate the stories of women.

“The lives of Haudenosaunee women are not often recognized in mainstream, non-Native forums. By featuring over 40 Haudenosaunee women in this exhibit, RMSC makes it clear to the public that not only are we still here in the Rochester area but that this is our homeland and we have always shaped its landscape,” said Michelle Schenandoah, founder and executive director of Rematriation Magazine and a featured changemaker. “Being a changemaker means playing a role in returning to sacred ways of living even as colonial systems constantly try to erase us.”

RMSC worked with 11 local organizations and more than 50 individuals from the community to help bring the exhibition to life. RMSC is one of few museums that has used a community curation model that includes shared authority for decision making.

“RMSC has taken the opportunity to bring the people from the community and all backgrounds to put this exhibition together. It is a brilliant idea that has allowed the changemakers to not be forgotten and for us to know their stories,” said Wanda Martinez-Johncox, one of the community curators and featured changemakers in the exhibit. “We’re bringing some of the forgotten women to life again for our kids, our future, to learn from and be inspired to make a change.”

RMSC was awarded a grant by the Rochester Area Community Foundation to hire three diversity, equity and inclusion consultants.

According to Murano Santos, the consultants “challenged our (the RMSC) assumptions around issues of identity, representation and even historical accuracy to create a more equitable, comprehensive and authentic presentation of women’s stories.”

“When diversity, equity and inclusion efforts are not utilized or recognized in the exhibit development process, it is all too easy to fall into approaches reflecting colonialism in museum institutions,” said DEI consultant Laticia McNaughton. “DEI work aims to instead create space for engagement and recognition, and helps ensure diverse voices are heard and better represented.”

The Changemakers will be open to the public in the Riedman Gallery and adjacent spaces on the third floor of the museum through spring 2021. The exhibition stretches across 7,000 square feet and shares compelling, authentic and lesser-known narratives of women from the Rochester region and sovereign Haudenosaunee Confederacy who left their mark on history and the world.

[email protected] / 585-653-4021
Follow Velvet Spicer on Twitter: @Velvet_Spicer