[00:00:01] Speaker A: The Journey Hometown Journal.
[00:00:03] Speaker B: In June, we have Sail Fest, which is a huge event that's going to be bringing tall ships up the James river, giving people the opportunity to see these sailing vessels as they come.
[00:00:14] Speaker C: Welcome to the Hometown Journal. I'm Mark Edwards. As America celebrates its 250th anniversary, there will be a lot of activity in Virginia and North Carolina as people visit historical sites and museums. On this edition, we're going to share how the Virginia Museum of History and Culture in Richmond is commemorated the anniversary, and how you can be involved. Joseph Rogers, director of Community Partnerships, and Audrey Wood, the Virginia History Affiliates Coordinator with the museum, are with us today.
Tell us a little bit about the Virginia250 passport.
What is that and how does it help our listeners commemorate the anniversary?
[00:00:54] Speaker B: The Passport is a fantastic program that we were able to put together in collaboration with several other sites. In particular, we were able to work with the Colonial Williamsburg, George Washington's Mount Vernon, the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, Jamestown settlement, Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, the VA 250th Mobile Museum, and VA 250 in general, who were able to really bring this whole thing together. And it allows for all of your listeners, anyone who's visiting Virginia, to go out and see these multiple sites. 70 sites are listed on the passports, all of them who are commemorating the 250th in some way or another.
And it does allow for discounted admission to these places, as well as the ability to potentially win some prizes for visiting five or more.
[00:01:41] Speaker C: Very good. And Audrey, the great thing about this is not only do you have obviously the opportunity to visit the number of historical sites in Virginia, but it's also a fun way to collect the stamps in the Passport.
[00:01:54] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, exactly. We have over 70 partner sites on the Passport from all over Virginia. Some places that I think are kind of hidden gems.
So while the great big places like Colonial Williamsburg and all of our signature sites are awesome, I think it gives Virginians a great opportunity to kind of hit those smaller sites and see a little bit more of the state.
[00:02:16] Speaker C: Are the passports, they're available at the museum? Are they available then online as well?
[00:02:22] Speaker D: There's a copy of the passport online, but in order to obtain like your physical copy that you'll need to get to all of the sites that is available at any of the five signature sites as well as the 12 Virginia tourism welcome centers across the state.
[00:02:37] Speaker C: With the 250th anniversary of our country, what are some of the special events exhibits planned at the museum as we go through the year.
[00:02:47] Speaker B: Yeah. So excitingly, the museum is always putting out new exhibits. One that's coming up later this month is called we the People, the World and Our Commonwealth. Talking about how Virginia itself has been a destination for immigration throughout the history of the country. But especially over the last 60 years, it's really reshaped and improved the nature and the culture of Virginia by bringing in new voices, new people, and really making it a global metropolitan kind of place. And so that exhibit opening up in just a few weeks in March 21st is going to be available for everyone to come to the museum and see. But in addition to that, we also have programming throughout the year. But I'm going to focus right now on June, the lead up to the actual 250 50th in July. So in June we have Sail Fest, which is a huge event that's going to be bringing tall ships up the James river, talking about and giving people the opportunity to see these sailing vessels as they come and then dock at the places where they were able to at that time of the 250th. I don't know if you know this or if your listeners might be familiar, but the Richmond got its start because it is the farthest inland, the farthest navigable point inland that ocean going vessels could go. So having this kind of connection here to the 250th and to sail Fest in general is actually really kind of cool.
And then later in that month, we are also having illumination, which is going to be an incredible light show, if you will, where the front of our building, which is old, very old and historic building that has a lot of wide spaces for it to be projected on. We're going to have these really kind of interesting projections that are going to go across the building. It's approximately 20 minutes worth of moving pictures and historic images and, well, an illumination of the history and progress of the nation.
[00:04:53] Speaker C: Today on the Hometown Journal, we are sharing how the Virginia Museum of History and Culture in Richmond is commemorating America's 250th birthday. You can check out current and planned events and exhibits
[email protected] in addition, you can also check out VA250.org and that has other resources available regarding the 250th anniversary celebration. We'll be back with more of the Hometown Journal in a minute.
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[00:05:42] Speaker C: Mark Edwards back with you. Along with a couple of guests from the Virginia Museum of History and Culture in Richmond. Joseph Rogers and Audrey Wood are joining us to talk about the museum's commemoration of America's 250th celebration. Audrey, can you comment a little bit about with the exhibits, all the events, maybe talk about some of the partnerships that the museum has and the work that's going into all of this and that the staff is doing well?
[00:06:11] Speaker D: Our new signature exhibit that Joseph was talking about has definitely been a labor of love from a lot of our staff members and has been kind of a long time coming. When you come and visit the museum itself, we have a lot of partnerships with different institutions from all over the state, particularly in our signature exhibit, Our Commonwealth. We have worked with a lot of different institutions in order to tell kind of more of a wider story of Virginia. So there's a lot to see, a lot of different places that have been involved in all of this and we're excited to see how it all comes together.
[00:06:41] Speaker C: Tell us a little bit about the museum just on a day to day basis. What's available to the public for those who may not be familiar with it?
[00:06:51] Speaker B: Well, I can tell you right now that the museum is in fact approaching its own 200th anniversary. It was established as the Virginia Historical and philosophical Society in 1831.
It's a really neat kind of thought because the museum itself is older than half the states of the United States. So we've got a large collection of over 9 million objects that have been collected over those 200 years. And because of that, we have a lot that people can enjoy. We have both our exhibits, but also our research library. Again, the oldest part of that collection that we have is in our research library, which is a non circulating library. But anyone can come in and request to see some of our really historic objects. For example, George Washington's journal from his first term of his presidency is here in the museum. So I think that that's kind of a neat tie in to 50th relationships to the museum structure itself. But beyond that, we also have, as Audrey mentioned, our marquee exhibitions, the Our Commonwealth, which is a kind of place based and more region specific examination of the culture of Virginia and the cultures of Virginia. And then we have the Story of Virginia, which is More that what you would expect from a chronological and time based exploration of the history of the state.
So there's a lot to see here. I really encourage anybody if you are coming to the Richmond area, if you're passing by, passing through, spend a little bit of time with us. We'd love to see you.
[00:08:26] Speaker C: Audrey, are there programs that are specific for kids when it comes to learning about history and that involve civics and history education?
[00:08:36] Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely. Our education team works a lot with different school groups and things from across the area, as well as more casual programs for younger folks. We often have days that are like lawn games on the front lawn of the museum. We also have our Virginia Civics program as well, which is a program dedicated to teaching civics across the state for both youth and adults.
[00:09:01] Speaker B: And I'll even add on to that too, that part of the civics program, part of our statewide operations that we have is Virginia History Day, which is specifically dedicated to young people who are exploring history. Back in my day, we didn't have history fairs, we only had science fairs. But thankfully they do have history fairs now and the VMHC is the statewide sponsor of that. And so we do a lot of programming that really emphasizes that History Day aspect. So that on the school level and then on the regional level, and then at the statewide level, these students get to present and explore historical topics, think about these things in new way. And then, as I mentioned, presenting, they do it in very different mediums too. So more than just, you know, your trifold board, they often have multimedia presentations and you can really see how. How passionate these kids are about it. Virginia History Day is coming up in April, which I'm very excited about.
[00:09:55] Speaker C: You mentioned the, the multimedia presentations. I was going to ask you, how are museums today combining the exhibits, the historical, the artifacts, with a desire from people to see those presentations using the latest technology. How do you handle that? How do you balance that?
[00:10:14] Speaker B: Well, I think we do it in a pretty good way. First of all, we have a introductory film. So when you come into the museum and you've paid your ticket and you go up the stairs, the first thing that you're going to see is the doorway to the actual theater itself. This introduction film is approximately 13 minutes long, but it tries to explore the long history of the Commonwealth, even from before it was a Commonwealth. And it is a really intense, by intense, I mean visually gripping presentation where you get to see the images of Virginia played out both in front of you, and even some of it creeps onto the floor. So it's a really interesting way of engaging with that. And I found that people really get into it, if you will, as far as being able to see all those things and then once the flames start reaching through the floor, spoiling too much. So I'll leave it at that. But another point, Our Commonwealth is another great example of opportunities to explore multimedia presentations, because in each of the sections of our commonwealth, which is broken up by regions, so Northern Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Shenandoah Valley, Central Virginia and Tidewater, it's broken up in those regions and each of those regions has a large format touch screen where you can then engage with the different content that's not just on the walls allowing you to see those artifacts, but talking more about how the culture of that region exists. Whether it's exploring the Great Wagon Trail or looking through the recipes of foods and Tidewater, or seeing the history quilt, this family tree that includes Arthur Ashe and a massive quilt in the high resolution. All of that is right at your fingertips.
[00:11:56] Speaker C: As we wrap up. Tell us again about the next exhibit that is coming up pretty quickly.
[00:12:02] Speaker B: So we the People is opening up on March 21st, and as I mentioned before, it is all about how immigration to Virginia has historically expanded or it's expanded more recently and has really become a cornerstone of the Virginian experience and how we define ourselves as Virginians. So even in that title, we the People, it really explores how many people over centuries have made Virginia a unique place that it is in America and around the world, and how the dramatic impact of the immigrant experience throughout Virginia's history as people have arrived from all four corners of the globe has really changed and improved the culture of the
[00:12:42] Speaker C: state that is Joseph Rogers and Audrey Wood of the Virginia Museum of History and Culture in Richmond. And again, the website is virginia history.org if you would like to visit and check out some of the exhibits and displays that they talked about. The museum is part of America's 250th anniversary celebration. Again, the website is virginiahistory.org thank you for joining us on the Hometown Journal.
[00:13:08] Speaker A: You've been listening to the Journey Hometown Journal. If you're a part of an organization or know of one in the communities we serve and would like to be considered as a guest, please make your request at myjourneyfm. Com, email
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