Museum of Memory Initiative

Museum of Memory is a public history initiative that works together with Colorado residents to co-author a shared history. We collaboratively work to reanimate, center and amplify the histories that have long existed only in the margins and create the opportunity for the community to decide how to remember its collective past.

History Colorado has assisted in nine Museum of Memory projects to date, some of which are still in progress and with more to come.

 

What happens in a MoM Project?

In MoM projects community members gather to explore together the shared memories of their neighborhoods and communities through:

• memory sharing workshops
• storytelling
• grassroots collecting efforts
•  art-based community sharebacks

Who Museum of Memory partners with:

• community-based organizations
• resident teams
• schools
• community members 

Museum of Memory improves participation in civic life by building more inclusive narratives of all the many people and ways that contribute to the fabric of a community. This initiative is based on the ideal that when people see themselves as the creators and makers of their own history, they also come to see themselves as the writers of their own destinies. It gathers community together and creates space for residents to actively and energetically participate in crafting a shared historic record.

Project Phases

Remembering

Communities engage in collective memory workshops, guided by History Colorado staff. The workshops employ a variety of strategies to jog memories and facilitate storytelling within a group. While Memory Projects vary, there are generally five to eight hosted community museum workshops.
 

Collecting

History Colorado with the help of Community Historians work together to collect stories, oral histories, writing, documents, and photographs during the collecting phase of the project.
 

Sharing

The sharing phase can take a variety of forms, including museum exhibit, mural, teatro, music and song, photography, digital forms, SoundCloud, podcast, conference presentations, etc. This aspect of the project is designed to share the stories and histories of the neighborhood or community with a larger audience. It is also designed for longevity within the neighborhood or community.
 

Below is a map of every Museum of Memory project. Click on the yellow icons to learn more about that memory project, and click on the purple icons to learn more about the nearest History Colorado museum.