In an ongoing effort to tell new stories in different ways, the CSPM exhibits team partners with individuals and organizations to create community-curated exhibits in our Museum Experience Gallery. Utilizing an innovative and collaborative approach, we invite community members to help examine and interpret Pikes Peak regional history. Leah Davis Witherow, CSPM Curator of History, described how CSPM developed Promoting Patriotism: WWI in Colorado Springs around the communitycurated model and involved Fountain Valley School (FVS) faculty and students in shaping of the exhibit. After orientation and a background lecture on WWI, students considered the “Forgotten War’s” impact by examining WWI posters from CSPM’s collection. They spent the next week consulting primary and secondary sources about wartime propaganda in order to conduct analysis and From the CSPM Collection interpretation. As a result, each student “adopted” a poster and was solely responsible for an object label of approximately 300 words. Then, Jake Emery, FVS Dean of Students, and Vinay Merchant and Julia Strickler, FVS students, shared their experiences working with CSPM staff to curate the exhibit. The students explained their “behind the scenes” opportunities to learn about museum work and how CSPM preserves and shares our community’s history. In addition, the students remarked how the connections to messages communicated in the posters from 100 years ago remain relevant today. In the future, CSPM looks forward to providing this opportunity to other age groups and schools. Next, Jennifer McGlinchey Sexton detailed the conservation work she performed on the WWI posters from CSPM’s collection to prepare them to be displayed in the gallery. The four original posters currently being displayed have been stabilized, but many of the posters need considerable amounts of professional conservation treatments to preserve them for future generations. For more information on the conservation efforts, please see the article on pages 5-6. To wrap up the program, Darryl Thatcher and Matt Mayberry unveiled CSPM’s Clock Tower Society to recognize those museum donors who give most generously. Clock Tower Society members give annually at or above $1,000 for three consecutive years. These sustaining gifts will allow CSPM to achieve Vision 2023’s ambitious goals, which are increasing the museum’s financial strength, providing a quality client experience and raising the museum’s brand awareness. pg. 3
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