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Colleagues from Palm Harbor, Casselberry, New Smyrna Beach, Belle Glade,
and Marco Island converged at the Cedar Key Library’s upstairs meeting room to participate in the workshop designed to teach participants to ably interpret, assemble, and disassemble the
Smithsonian’s “The Way We Worked” traveling exhibit, which will remain in place until October 24, 2014. The group is pictured to the left.
The exhibit will travel to these other five small Florida cities when it leaves Cedar Key in October and these visitors will be the exhibit’s orchestrators in their towns. They came ready to learn and learn they did.
Welcoming them with smiles and coffee were Cedar Key Vice-Mayor Sue Colson, Cedar Key Historical Society President Ken Young, Cedar Key Historical Society Museum Director Galina Binkley, cedar Key's own Dr. John Andrews, and Levy County Visitors Bureau Exeutive Director Carol McQueen. Later in the day, participants experienced a first-hand taste of “how Cedar Key works” with lunch at Tony’s Seafood Restaurant, a location so integral to the city’s living history of fishing and tourism. Andrews, Colson, and McQueen are pictured to the right.
What was an empty room at 8am became, before noon, a series of colorful gears, action-filled pictures, informative banners, and interactives explaining how Americans have labored over the past 150
years.
Smithsonian Institution Director of Exhibits Carol Harsh led the workshop, carefully overviewing the contents of some twelve huge crates and their packing logic and demonstrating, in much detail, the erection of one of the exhibit’s parts. Instruction included everything from how to introduce visitors to the exhibit’s meaningful content to the repacking of the crates and the truck at the exhibit’s end. Harsh is pictured in the above left snapshot in the polka-dotted center.
Florida Humanities Council Program Coordinator Alex Buell and his colleagues Dr. Jennifer Snyder and Keith Simmons functioned as the critical support team assisting the small Florida cities’ representatives construct their assigned part of the exhibit. University of Florida Master Lecturer, the Department of History, Dr. Steven Noll will function as Cedar Key’s resident expert on the exhibit’s content.
Demonstrating the adage that learning is doing, the participants did, indeed, learn as they worked. Under Harsh’s careful eyes and with Buell’s, Snyder’s, and Simmons’ assistance, the exhibit took shape. No hammers, no nails, no pliers, no wrenches were needed, so well designed is the exhibit.
The session ended with no ceiling tiles, no ceiling fans, and no lights lost in the endeavor and learned, confident, smiling small cities’ representatives.
*******
Feasting on mouth-watering baked clams, Tony’s rich, delicious clam chowder, and huge
butter-drenched steamed clams, wll over ninety of the Cedar Key community and its visitors gathered behind the Library and the Chamber of Commerce last evening to celebrate the opening of the
Smithsonian presence to Cedar Key.
Visitors also toured the ongoing exhibits, which will remain in place for the six-week visit, along Second Street: the Cedar Key Arts Center second floor gallery, the Aquaculture Association exhibit with the giant clam outside its door welcoming them inside, the Cedar Key Historical Society Museum, and the Smithsonian’s The Way We Worked” exhibit in the Library’s second floor meeting room.
Levy County Visitors Bureau Executive Director Carol McQueen dressed in last century garb. Maurice Hendrix, Lannie Cardona, and Dale Register manned the bar. Sue Colson and Leslie Sturmer served while Russ Colson and Ada Lang cooked clams. Vincent Quinn served Tony’s chowder. Linda Seyfert provided not only the truly Cedar Key décor but the recipe for the baked clams.
The Whitney Laboraatory for Marine Science and Seahorse Key Marine Laboratory group were, indeed, present. Director of Developent and External Relations Jessica Long is picturred here in yellow. Seahorse Key Marine Lab Associate Director and Research Assistant Professor with the Departmennt of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation at the University of Florida Dr. Coleman Sheehy III is the gentleman with his arm about Ms. Long. The second lady with Dr. Sheehy is Cedar Key's own Dr. Maria Sgmbati, Education and Outreach Coordinator with the University of Florida and based at the Kirkpatrick Marine Lab on Cedar Key.
Lilly Rooks, currently running for Levy County Commissioner in District Four, graced the exhibits.
The Drummond Bank, Cedar Key Aquaculture Association, the Lions, Tony’s Seafood, the Chamber of Commerce, and other businesses and individuals came together in true Cedar Key style to produce the Sunday evening event.
Visitors to the four locations of the Museum on Main Street in Cedar Key enjoyed their stops at the Library where the Smithsonian exhibits are located, then a walk across the street to the Cedar Key Arts Center, next a stop at the Cedar Key Aquaculture Association's live exhibit which shows the story of clam and oyster farming; then most visitors came to the CKHS museum to learn even more about the history of how people earned their livelihood in Cedar Key in the past and how they work today.
Colleagues from Palm Harbor, Casselberry, New Smyrna Beach, Belle Glade,
and Marco Island converged at the Cedar Key Library’s upstairs meeting room to participate in the workshop designed to teach participants to ably interpret, assemble, and disassemble the
Smithsonian’s “The Way We Worked” traveling exhibit, which will remain in place until October 24, 2014. The group is pictured to the left.
The exhibit will travel to these other five small Florida cities when it leaves Cedar Key in October and these visitors will be the exhibit’s orchestrators in their towns. They came ready to learn and learn they did.
Welcoming them with smiles and coffee were Cedar Key Vice-Mayor Sue Colson, Cedar Key Historical Society President Ken Young, Cedar Key Historical Society Museum Director Galina Binkley, cedar Key's own Dr. John Andrews, and Levy County Visitors Bureau Exeutive Director Carol McQueen. Later in the day, participants experienced a first-hand taste of “how Cedar Key works” with lunch at Tony’s Seafood Restaurant, a location so integral to the city’s living history of fishing and tourism. Andrews, Colson, and McQueen are pictured to the right.
What was an empty room at 8am became, before noon, a series of colorful gears, action-filled pictures,
informative banners, and interactives explaining how Americans have labored over the past 150 years.
Smithsonian Institution Director of Exhibits Carol Harsh led the workshop, carefully overviewing the contents of some twelve huge crates and their packing logic and demonstrating, in much detail, the erection of one of the exhibit’s parts. Instruction included everything from how to introduce visitors to the exhibit’s meaningful content to the repacking of the crates and the truck at the exhibit’s end. Harsh is pictured in the above left snapshot in the polka-dotted center.
Florida Humanities Council Program Coordinator Alex Buell and his colleagues Dr. Jennifer Snyder and Keith Simmons functioned as the critical support team assisting the small Florida cities’ representatives construct their assigned part of the exhibit. University of Florida Master Lecturer, the Department of History, Dr. Steven Noll will function as Cedar Key’s resident expert on the exhibit’s content.
Demonstrating the adage that learning is doing, the participants did, indeed, learn as they worked. Under Harsh’s careful eyes and with Buell’s, Snyder’s, and Simmons’ assistance, the exhibit took shape. No hammers, no nails, no pliers, no wrenches were needed, so well designed is the exhibit.
The session ended with no ceiling tiles, no ceiling fans, and no lights lost in the endeavor and learned, confident, smiling small cities’ representatives.
*******
www.cedarkeynews.com featured a story about the arrival of the Smithsonian Institution traveling exhibit: Museum on Main Street -The Way We Worked. L-R: Dr. John Andrews, Ken Young, Galina Binkley, George Sresovich, David Binkley. Ken is the President of Cedar Key Historical Society and Galina is the Executive Director. Cedar Key Historical Society is the local sponsor for this event with cooperation from several organizations and individuals in Cedar Key. This on-line newspaper gives addtional and complete information about this major happening for our small town. We hope to see some more folks visit Cedar Key in the coming weeks for this very interesting event.
The Cedar Key Historical Society is pleased to announce that it has been selected to host Museum on Main Street, which will be taking place from September through October of 2014. Funded in part by the United States Congress, MoMS combines the talents of the Smithsonian Institution, the state humanities councils, and local organizations to bring national and local heritage to small communities across the United States.
The physical exhibit, which is titled “The Way We Worked”, explores how work became a central element in American culture by tracing the many changes that affected the workforce and work environments over the past 150 years. The exhibit will be located on the second floor of the Cedar Key Public Library, and will be open to the public free of charge.
During this event, we plan to showcase the history of our community by offering a public program consisting of weekly tours and presentations led by our local citizenry. We will be kicking off the program with a reception at the CKHS Museum, co-hosted by the Cedar Key Aquaculture Association.
During the first week of the program, Pam Darty, park ranger with the SUFWS Lower Suwanee National Wildlife Refuge, will be conducting tours of Shell Mound, a large prehistoric Indian mound on the mainland, just off the Cedar Keys.
During the second week Toni Collins, local historian, author, and storyteller, will provide a unique historic perspective of our offshore keys. Dressed in period costume, she will also lead a tour of the Cedar Keys Light Station.
In the weeks to follow there will be local tours offered by the Cedar Key Historical Society, as well as 3 ongoing Art Exhibits sponsored by the Cedar Key Arts Center. Leslie Sturmer, UF shellfish aquaculture specialist will introduce our clam farming industry with talks and tours of our local facilities.
These are just a few of the exciting events we have planned for next fall. We are certain that this program, with its national exposure, will bring recognition to our rich history, but will also attract increased visitation on a significant scale.
Thanks Ken Young – President, Cedar Key Historical Society
Schedule of important events during Smithsonian's exhibit: "The Way We Worked".
August 5, 2014
Preparations are underway for the Smithsonian’s traveling exhibit, The Way We Worked,” coming to Cedar Key on Saturday, September 13 through Friday, October 24, 2014! Pictured are Cedar Key Public Works staffers Brian Hancok and Norm Hodge applauded by Vice Mayor Sue Colson as they stretch the banner announcing the event at the corner of Second Street and State Road 24, yesterday, Monday, August 4, 2014.