Leah Burgin, Manager of Museum Education and Programs and Leah Hopkins, Community Engagement Specialist
In reflecting upon the Haffenreffer Museum’s public programming from Fall 2019 to Spring 2022, we find ourselves especially grateful for the incredible support the Education Department has received from Museum colleagues, student employees, and campus and community partners. Together, with the generous contributions from donors to the Friends of the Haffenreffer Museum, Samuel M. Cate Fund, and the Museum’s endowments, we engaged over 2,000 students, faculty, and community members through virtual and in-person public programming.
In October 2020, Women Do Archaeology celebrated Rhode Island’s Archaeology Month and marked 2020’s centennial commemoration of the 19th Amendment by highlighting the work of women archaeologists and anthropologists affiliated with the Museum: Annalisa Heppner, Leah Hopkins, Dr. Pinar Durgun, Dr. Jen Thum, and Dr. Michele Hayeur Smith.
For Anthropology Day In February 2021, the Museum launched the 5th edition of our popular escape room, “Escape the Haffenreffer” as a virtual game. Players around the world teamed up with friends to crack codes, solve puzzles, and Escape the Haffenreffer! The game is still available on the Museum’s website for anyone who would like to try and escape! Click Here to Play!
In Fall 2021, the Museum partnered with North Burial Ground and Rhode Island Latino Arts (RILA) for a series of Día de los Muertos programming, including a cempasuchil-making workshop; a talk with Sarah Chavez, co-founder of The Collective For Radical Death Studies and the Executive Director of The Order Of the Good Death; and a Community Celebration at North Burial Ground with an altar and procession around the cemetery. The Museum was honored to be invited to partake in this joyful celebration of the family and friends who passed away.
We also hosted a virtual screening of The Search for the Anasazi and a conversation with the Chongo Brothers, Diego and Mateo Romero. This film is a satirical take on archaeologist’s fascination with Pueblo culture and a Native commentary on archaeologist-Native relations. Diego and Mateo Romero are both acclaimed contemporary artists working in pottery and painting, respectively.
Exhibition Openings, Closings and Programs
In the fall of 2019, we said farewell to our popular exhibitions Drone Warriors and Sacred is Sacred with two programs co-sponsored with Native American and Indigenous Studies at Brown (NAISAB). Drone Warriors curator Adrienne Keene (Cherokee Nation, Brown University) shared her unpublished research on Native student activism and the response to Standing Rock on Oct. 24 with her talk, “‘I just had to be there:’ Experiences of Indigenous students in the #NoDAPL movement.”
Sacred is Sacred curator Isabella Robbins (Diné, MA ’19) returned to campus on Dec. 6 to reflect upon the digital storytelling project she compiled using thousands of visitor responses to the exhibitions’ interactive world map prompt: What’s a place you want to protect?. Robbins’ talk, “Protect These Places: Curating in Collaboration,” also featured Dr. Keene for a joint Q&A regarding Indigenous curation and concluded with a reception in honor of the exhibitions’ closing.
In the spring of 2020, we celebrated the Museum’s new exhibition, Transient Matter: Assemblages of Migration in the Mediterranean with an opening reception and curators talk on Feb. 20 presented in partnership with the Decolonial Initiative. Curators Yannis Hamilakis (Brown University), L. Darcy Hackley, Sherena Razek, and Ayşe Şanlı, all Brown graduate students, delivered remarks regarding the European migration crisis, as well as their reflections on curating the exhibition.
On March 2, poet Marwa Helal continued this conversation with a poetry reading in the gallery presented in partnership with the Literary Arts Department. The program, “I AM MADE TO LEAVE I AM MADE TO RETURN,” featured selected readings from Helal’s book, Invasive Species, and a facilitated Q&A with Dr. Hamilakis and Eleni Sikelianos (Brown University). Helal’s poetry explored themes of translation, xenophobia, and the agency of storytelling, activating the exhibition through a new lens.
The Museum continued to offer visitors engaging, interactive programming through Providence Gallery Night and student open house art-making program on Sept. 19, a hands-on open house for Brown’s Parents Weekend and International Archaeology Day on Oct. 19, a Global Game Night Afternoon program for Anthropology Day on Feb. 22 in partnership with the Providence Gaming Guild, and the fourth iteration of our popular escape room, Escape the Haffenreffer!, during the weekend of Nov. 2. The Museum’s new Community Engagement Specialist, Leah Hopkins, also organized a deerskin painting workshop with artist Kerri Helme (Mashpee Wampanoag) on March 6. You can read more about the workshop and the Museum’s exciting community engagement initiatives on [page].
In addition to the programming planned by the Education Department, the Museum supported colleagues in the Anthropology department as a sponsor for the 38th Northeast Conference on Andean and Amazonian Archaeology during the weekend of Nov. 2. We supported our NAISAB colleagues by hosting two brown-bag lunch talks in the gallery—Alyssa Mt. Pleasant (Tuscarora, University of Buffalo) on Oct. 24 and Darren Ranco (Penobscot Indian Nation, University of Maine) on Nov. 4—and hosting the reception for the Weetumuw Katnuhtôhtâkamuq (Weetumuw School) Indigenous Languages and Educational Sovereignty Symposium on Nov. 15. Museum staff enjoyed seeing the gallery come alive with these programs and we hope to continue offering the gallery as a space for our colleagues and community partners.
Cover photography by Juan Arce