In Autumn of 2019, I interned with the Blowing Rock Art and History Museum’s Director of Programming as he guest-curated an exhibit focusing on local outdoor recreation. This exhibit had both a physical and digital installation.

I contributed to the exhibit in several ways. The first way involved the oral histories collected and archived with the digital exhibit. For most of the oral history subjects, I transcribed and lightly edited their interview audio files, and photographed them. I also identified two oral history subjects to interview, record, and photograph.

My second project involved developing an interactive online component for the exhibit. I created a special Google map that marked a location that each oral history subject described as special to them. Visitors to the exhibit’s webpage could learn more about these local outdoor recreation sites by exploring this map and contribute to the map by adding their own special places.

These components became more important as COVID temporarily forced the museum’s doors closed. The exhibit debuted digitally in Spring 2020. Some of my photographs and oral history excerpts were shared via the museum’s social media to encourage online visitation to the exhibit.

Once the museum was allowed to reopen, I assisted in the physical site installation in Autumn 2020. I coordinated with a local photographer to contribute additional photographs to the gallery space. I adhered wall vinyl and set up displays.

You can check out the oral histories, my photography, the interactive map, and images of the physical exhibit here on the museum’s archived exhibition page.