Aligning the Native New York Exhibition at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in New York with Teachers' Needs
Client: National Museum of the American Indian in New York | Location: New York, NY
We helped the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in New York design its Native New York exhibition with an eye towards serving K-12 teachers and students.
OVERVIEW
In 2016-2017, we led a two-phase formative study for the National Museum of the American Indian in New York to support development of the Native New York exhibition. Through explorations of twelve places in present-day New York, the exhibition aims to expand visitors’ understandings of the region’s history and reveal how New York is—and has always been—a Native place.
One of the primary audiences for this exhibition was New York City teachers and their students, and so our study focused primarily on ensuring the exhibition supported their needs.
APPROACH
Across two study phases, we gathered feedback from New York City teachers who teach students from 4th to 8th grade (when there is a stronger Native history focus in curriculum). In each phase, we led focus groups to assess:
Teachers’ baseline knowledge of Native history in New York
What teachers find compelling (or not) about the proposed exhibition, and potential barriers to engagement
How teachers anticipate their students will (or won’t) find relevance in the exhibition, and
How the museum can best support teachers in using the exhibition as a teaching tool with their students
CLIENT TAKEAWAYS
We found that teachers were excited for an exhibition that would emphasize Native people’s contributions to New York, because this echoes their goals in the classroom. However, while teachers’ baseline comfort level with the topic was high, they often discussed “Native Americans” generally (as one group rather than framing as a variety of distinct peoples and cultures).
Our findings revealed opportunities for the museum to better support teachers in understanding Native cultures’ complexities both in the past and today and of New York’s Native nations specifically.
