Events & Activities
Georgia Foodways
The Center has been actively involved with promoting the Smithsonian exhibit "Key Ingredients: America by Food" throughout the state over the past year. This exhibit is sponsored by the Georgia Humanities Council, and the Center and the University of West Georgia have been sponsors of the program.
Graduate students Kristina Hartmann, Katie Hicks, and Dr. Ann McCleary participated in a session on the Georgia tour of "Key Ingredients: America By Food" at the Georgia Association of Historians Annual Meeting in Dahlonega on February 28. They shared their experiences in doing the research and fieldwork for the Georgia foodways catalog that is available at each exhibit venue.
This past spring, Center staff presented several programs on their research. On April 14, Hartmann, Hicks, and McCleary led a program on "Key Ingredients" at the UWG Ingram Library's "Lunch and Learn" series. The program is open to the public. Hartmann, Hicks, and McCleary also made presentations about educational programming at the installation workshop for "Key Ingredients" in Kingland, GA, on May 1, 2009, for the opening of the exhibit in Kingsland. Dr. McCleary will present a workshop for senior citizens on January 16, 2010, in association with the exhibit at the Haralson County Historcal Society in Buchanan, Georgia.
Bremen City Apparel Industry History
The Center is a partner with the City of Bremen on a Georgia Humanites Council grant to develop teaching materials on local history. Graduate research assistant Meghan Donahue and Center Director Ann McCleary are coordinating the Center's work. In the spring semester, graduate research assistant Shanda Davidson and Morgan Carraway attended a Georgia Trust workshop on its "Talking Walls" heritage education program in February, where they gathered additional new ideas and another partner for the project.
Donahue and Center GRA Dusty Dye are developing a website of materials for Bremen teachers to be completed in Decmber 2009. Please contact the Center for more information on our teacher education grant and to learn more about our resources. We will be visiting Bremen City Schools this fall to share more about these resources for teacher.
The Center is also assisting the City of Bremen with its new museum, the Bremen History Center. Graduate student Steven Eubanks is helping the Museum implement the new Collections Policy and acquiring and processing artifacts for the museum. To learn more about how you might donate artifacts or archival materials to the museum, please contact Steven at the Center for Public History.
Graduate students in the Introduction to Public History class this fall are also assisting the City with is museum and local history projects. One group of graduate students is developing a walking tour of downtown Bremen, while another is planning a temporary exhibit on the City's history. A third group is preparing a traveling trunk for teachers to use in local history projects. The fourth group is developing a marketing plan and related materials, while the fifth group is creating a notebook of resources for community volunteers who want to become involved in the project. All of these projects will be completed in December 2009.
Villa Rica Architectural Survey
The Center is contracting with the City of Villa Rica to undertake an architectural survey of the City's historic districts. During the summer of 2009, Dr. McCleary, Steven Eubanks, Shanda Davidson, and Holly Lane surveyed 600 properties within these historic districts and re-evaluated the district boundaries. During this fall 2009 semester, Shanda Davidson is compiling these surveys into a final survey report for the City. In addition, Davidson and Lane are developing a National Register nomination for Fullerville, a mill town that has been incorporated into Villa Rica.
African American Note Singing Traditions
Ann McCleary and Dusty Dye are coordinating the Center's efforts to develop a CD on African American note singing traditions in our area, drawing upon our research over the past few years, assisted by intern Sasha Davis. We are planning to conduct additional interviews this fall 2009 semester.
Family and Consumer Science Traveling Trunk
One of our new projects, spearheaded by graduate student Eve Copeland and Ann McCleary, is the creation of a traveling trunk that documents one hundred years of cooperative extension history and family and consumer sciences in Georgia. The Center is partnering with the Georgia ooperative Extension Service in developing this new project and staffer Sharon Gibson. Intern Sasha Davis in researching and creating components on canning and food preservation and on feed bag dresses.
