CWU Seeks Family Keepsakes for Upcoming “Moving Stories” Exhibit

The Museum of Culture and Environment at Central Washington University is seeking submissions for its upcoming exhibit Moving Stories: Our Objects in Motion. This exhibit will feature stories about journeys—from people living in Kittitas County— told through the medium of physical items.

Every family has stories of movement and migration from a distant homeland or across a nearby landscape. Often, we are connected to these “moving stories” through physical things that we or our ancestors retained such as a quilt, a beloved article of clothing, an old family photograph, a keepsake, or heirloom.

Objects about shorter trips are fine as well: the toy or blanket your child insists on having for every car trip. A snapshot of the family unpacking after a big move. A memento of a family vacation.

What’s your moving story? We want to share it! The museum will display these stories and objects from January 10-March 11, 2017.

Submissions should include:

1. A photograph of the object you would like us to consider

2. Your family migration or movement story, explaining the object’s significance, in 250 words or less

3. (Optional) A three-inch self-portrait.

Submit entry electronically, by emailing museum@cwu.edu. Alternatively, mail or deliver a printed version to the museum’s physical address: Dean Hall rm. 122, 1200 Wildcat Way, Ellensburg between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Physical objects cannot be accepted at this time.

Proposals must be submitted to the Museum of Culture and Environment no later than Friday, October 14, 2016. Notifications will take place by November 1, if the museum chooses to borrow and display the object for a three-month period.

This exhibit helps support the university’s year-long dialogue about migration and immigration. It’s also part of CWU’s Big Read program—encouraging the community to read and discuss Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried—leading up to the author’s visit to Ellensburg in April 2017.

The Museum of Culture and Environment is located on the first floor of Dean Hall. Admission is always free and regular visitation hours, during the academic term, are Wednesday through Friday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Parking on the CWU campus is free on weekends and after 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

For more information, contact museum@cwu.edu or go to www.cwu.edu/museum.

NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.

El proyecto NEA Big Read es una iniciativa del National Endowment for the Arts (el Fondo Nacional para las Artes de Estados Unidos) en cooperación con Arts Midwest.

Media contact: Dawn Alford, CWU Public Affairs, 509-963-1484, dawn.alford@cwu.edu.

August 16, 2016