MSH | MUSEUMÂ UNBOUND
Giving Voices to the Silenced Histories
The Museum of Silenced Histories (MSH) is an interactive and living museum unbound by a specific location, type of communication medium, or demographics of the target audience. It is planned as a physical and digital place of storytelling, healing, and reconciliation for those whose stories have been silenced in the past. It offers a place of community gathering, collection, exchange, and celebration while providing a safe space for sharing stories articulating differences while underscoring our shared humanity.
The Museum of Silenced Histories project is an initiative of the Coalition Center for Environmental Sustainability (CC4ES), a 501 (c)(3) non-profit grassroots organization for building sustainable and regenerative communities with environmental, social, and economic justice and equity.
VISION
A space to identify with, connect and stay
The land is essential for human survival and its natural designs dictate where we must anchor if we are to live harmoniously with the earth. Civilization arose from the cultivation of land, forging a sacred connection with nature. Yet, in the name of prosperity and progress we have lost much of our ability to hear the voices of the land, and of each other. Industrialization, technological advances, and ongoing disciplinary specialization and fragmentation have unintentionally fueled ecological destruction and our loss of connection to the non-human natural world; while social and economic disparity have grown in pace with this increasing disassociation. It is time we re-anchor with the earth if we hope to tackle the systemic issues that threaten our very survival - climate change, inequity, and racism.
MUSEUM OF SILENCED HISTORIES
A Living Museum
The Museum of Silenced Histories offers a space for minority, underrepresented, and marginalized members of society to share their stories and have their voices heard, perhaps, for the first time. It is a place of community identity, and a place of healing and reconciliation. Its accompanying community-convening space includes:
SPACES
Spaces for in-person meetings, programs, and events as well as a quiet space for personal or group reflection and meditation
A READING ROOM & LIBRARY
A reading room and library holding history and knowledge recorded orally, visually and in writing by members of the silenced communities, as well as books and digital resources focusing on the issues they face
GARDEN-CENTERED GREEN SPACE
a site of healing, hope, and nurturance within the parameters designed by nature
GARDEN OF REGENERATION
Green space for healing & regenerative sustainability
The MSH Garden of Regeneration is a verdant space where those whose voices have been silenced can openly reflect, value, and honor their own cultural knowledge and wisdom. The garden serves as an urban wildlife habitat, a place for cultivating environmental stewardship, and as an incubator of regenerative agriculture approaches and knowledge that re-establishes our bonds with the land. At the same time, it joins with existing community gardens in the area and related community land stewardship initiatives in offering a model of environmental sustainability to surrounding neighborhoods and the region.
I-95 PROVIDENCE REGENERATIVEÂ CORRIDOR
For Transformative Justice & Equity
The Museum of Silenced Histories is part of Providence's Interstate 95 corridor which, since its construction in the mid-to-late 1950s, has created a physical disruption and layers of inequity within the city's physical and social fabric.
At the same time, over the years, the 1-95 corridor has become home to many grassroots community initiatives focusing on food justice, sustainability, livelihood opportunities, and public health. The Museum of Silenced Histories furthers its parent organization CC4ES's mission in seeking to foster networks among these existing initiatives, and by reframing the 1-95 corridor as a new Commons within Providence - a collage of collected identities and cultural expression, and a place of regenerative production.
CC4ES MSH TEAM
Here When You Need Us
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SUSAN SHIM GORELICK
Programs Director
Susan as CC4ES Founder & Executive Director coordinates various CC4ES programs, the MSH being the most comprehensive embodiment of CC4ES'Â mission.
SUMMER GONSALVES
Community Engagement Coordinator
Summer Gonsalves is a member of the Narragansett Indian Tribe. She is the Co-Leader and a Research Associate with the Brown University Superfund Community Engagement Core. Through her work, Summer works diligently connecting communities with resources to lessen the impact that environmental contamination placed on them.
ELIZABETH DEAN HERMANN
TAASI East Founder & Executive Director
Elizabeth Hermann is a cultural historian and designer whose research and teaching focus on socioecological frameworks for understanding the history and design of human settlements and place-making; cultural identity and land-based forms of resistance and struggle among marginalized communities; environmental and social resiliency; and issues of climate-change related displacement, disaster capitalism, and social and environmental justice.
STEADÂ FAST
Community Engagement through Arts
Stead Fast (they/them) was raised in southern Rhode Island and recently moved to the Providence area to pursue a career in museum studies and gain their first degree. They're currently a student at College Unbound and work part time at a cafe. They are primarily focused on community engagement and assisting artists and other entrepreneurs to access/create platforms for their businesses.