New York Archives proudly presents 
Creating Change with Changemakers: Disrupting Museum Storytelling

 March 4 |12:30 p.m. 
 Register Now 

Learn how a community curation model, including sourcing objects from contemporary individuals, can enhance the accuracy, quality, diversity, and authentic representation within an exhibit, and how the voices of the community can push museum professionals and leadership to evolve their thinking around creating an exhibit.

Kathryn Murano Santos (Senior Director of Collections and Exhibits) and Elizabeth Pietrzykowski (Assistant Director of Collections and Registrar) from the Rochester Museum & Science Center (RMSC) will share their unique experience developing, creating, and unveiling RMSC’s newest exhibit, The Changemakers: Rochester Women Who Changed the World. They will also discuss how the community curation process helped the organization create closer relationships with the local community, and why it is vital to have staff members and leadership who are committed to change for community curation to be successful. Rachel DeGuzman (Founder and Executive Director, 21st Century Arts Inc.) and Wanda Martinez-Johncox (CEO of Re-lief Corp., Re-liefdisaster.com, and Director, PHP Agency, Inc. Financial Marketing Org.) will share their experience as community curators using their expertise to help develop and create content to tell the stories of more than 200 women featured in the exhibit. The group will also discuss the positive outcomes of community curation, and explain how a Museum’s commitment to engaging with and implementing community feedback can result in shared ownership, validation, pride, and increased audience engagement with the exhibit.

About The exhibit

In November 2020, the Rochester Museum & Science Center launched a community-curated exhibition that aims to inspire and empower the community to be Changemakers by sharing stories of regional innovators just like them.

RMSC worked with over 50 community members and 11 community organizations in a community-curation process, which involved shared authority in decision making. The exhibit will run thru May 16, 2021. For more information, visit rmsc.org/changemakers.

About The speakers

Kathryn Murano Santos is the Senior Director of Collections and Exhibitions at the Rochester Museum & Science Center (RMSC). She has more than 17 years of professional experience in museum collections and data management, visitor engagement, and collaboration with communities of origin and interest. Murano Santos sets strategy and oversees all aspects of the RMSC’s exhibition development program and directs stewardship of the 1.2 million objects it holds in trust for the public. She has led a variety of initiatives to democratize access to educational resources and facilitate community dialogue, including projects to digitize collections, repatriate objects to Native American groups, and develop exhibits inclusively through authentic community participation. She currently serves as the President of the Friends of Ganondagan Board. In 2017, she was a recipient of the Rochester Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 award for her professional achievement and civic contributions.

Elizabeth Pietrzykowski is the Assistant Director of Collections and Registrar at the Rochester Museum & Science Center (RMSC). Elizabeth has more than 8 years in museum collections and educational interpretation for programs, events, and exhibitions. As Assistant Director of Collections, she facilitates and supports the stewardship of the 1.2 million objects that the museum holds in trust for the public. As Registrar, she also manages the primary documentation for the collections and provides access to objects through exhibition, loans, and research requests. She has played pivotal roles in improving access to collections through projects such as 3D photography of technological collections, consolidation and transfer of collections records and data into the RMSC collections management database, and consultation with Native American groups. She is currently project manager of the Storage Renovation Project to move and rehouse collections objects into upgraded storage facilities.

Rachel Y. DeGuzman is the award-winning founder and executive director of 21st Century Arts Inc., which is based in The Black House, its headquarters and arts space for programming – where she is managing curator. The focus of DeGuzman’s work is decentering whiteness in arts/culture by centering the art, narratives, and voices of people of color - especially women and marginalized LGBTQ+ communities. In fulfillment of that vision, she established “At the Crossroads: Activating the Intersection of Art and Justice,” an initiative presented by 21st Century Arts, in 2017. Her current work culminated from a traditional career in professional arts with the intent to produce work more rooted in both art and community - that values experimentation, innovation, creativity in all its forms, social justice, and equity.

DeGuzman served as a community curator and collaborator on "The Changemakers" exhibit development committee, and served as Guest Curator for the ChangeNOW installation housed within the larger exhibit.

Wanda Martinez-Johncox is an activist born and raised in San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico. She has been an active member of the Out Alliance's Education Team since 2008. Wanda was employed at the Canandaigua Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical and worked for almost 11 years. An advocate for Veterans, Wanda was the first Special Emphasis Manager and LGBT Veterans Care Coordinator for the Canandaigua, Bath and Rochester Outpatient Veterans Affairs. She travels across the county and Puerto Rico to help other VA's start LGBTQ* Veterans groups. In 2020, Wanda began her own Financial Marketing Business. While helping with COVID at Trillium Health, she realized other families' needs and the importance for families to have life insurance.

Wanda served as a community curator and collaborator on "The Changemakers" exhibit development committee.

More Event Details

A direct link and password to digital meeting space will be emailed to all registrants ahead of time. Contact aptrust@nysed.gov with questions or in need of assistance.