**this event was cancelled due to an illness; we encourage you to check out Clarissa’s book, available through online retailers and UMass Press.**
The team at Greenhouse Studios is delighted to invite our community to the UConn Storrs William Benton Museum of Art to celebrate Associate Director Clarissa J. Ceglio’s new book, A Cultural Arsenal for Democracy: The World War II Work of US Museums! Dr. Ceglio will be giving an Author Talk and participating in a Q&A, held in conjunction with the 2022 Digital Media and Design Faculty Exhibition. Find the event details and more about the book below. See you there!
The Museum as “Social Instrument” and Storyteller: WWII and Now
Clarissa J. Ceglio
Thurs., December 8, 2022, at 12:30 p.m.
The William Benton Museum of Art
A Cultural Arsenal for Democracy: The World War II Work of US Museums
The economic and human challenges of the Great Depression prompted U.S. museums to re-evaluate their duties to the public. In answer, some practitioners in the 1930s and ‘40s championed the vision of the museum as a “social instrument” for democracy. Such a museum engaged with contemporary issues and incorporated new modes of immersive storytelling into topical exhibitions to inspire museumgoers to take informed action on civic matters. This talk, based on Ceglio’s new book, A Cultural Arsenal for Democracy: The World War II Work of US Museums (Amherst: UMass Press), connects this history to present-day efforts by museums to harness the power of storytelling and become agents for social change.
Clarissa J. Ceglio is a U.S. cultural historian, Associate Director of Research for Greenhouse Studios, and Associate Professor of digital humanities in the Digital Media and Design Department. Her research focuses on the roles that physical and digital artifacts play in constructing national and social imaginaries within the context of museum work, past and present. A Cultural Arsenal for Democracy: The World War II Work of US Museums made possible with funding from UConn’s School of Fine Arts’ Project Completion Grant and the UConn Humanities Institute’s Humanities Book Support Award.
You can find Dr. Ceglio’s book through UMass Press and a variety of online retailers, including Barnes & Noble and Amazon.